Nearshore and alluvial facies in the Sant Llorenc del Munt depositional system: recognition and development

The Eocene Sant Llorenc del Munt fan-delta complex forms a part of the coarse-grained foreland basin fill of the southeastern margin of the Ebro Basin. It was sourced from the rising Catalan Coastal Range in the SE and shows an overall northwesterly progradation during a time period of approximately six million years. Coarse elastic deposits (coarse sands and gravels) dominated this fan delta, whereas finer-grained sands, silts, and muds were deposited laterally off active sedimentation sites or in the more marine area. Depositional processes were clearly influenced by the high sediment input, giving a dominance of sediment gravity flow deposits. The sediments studied have been grouped into four distinct facies belts including coastal plain, proximal fan-delta front, distal fan-delta front and fan-delta slope sediments, respectively. The facies belts combine to form the nearshore and coastal alluvial reaches of the fan-delta system, developed during a transgressive phase lasting some 50,000 years. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.