Facies, sedimentary environments and sequence stratigraphy of Cretaceous deposits in the northwest of Azerbaijan, Iran

Abstract

The Cretaceous deposits in Morakan, located in the northeast of Khoy, a town in western Azerbaijan province, Iran, are primarily made up of carbonate rocks. These deposits, which are of 717 meters thick, lie on the clastic facies of Jurassic and are covered with beneath the pelagic beds of the Upper Cretaceous. To investigate the facies, sedimentary environment and sequential stratigraphy of these successions, a stratigraphic section was made in the south of Morakan village. Carbonate facies in this section have deposited in open marine, bar, lagoon, and tidal flat facies belts. The study of these facies and comparing them with old and modern sedimentary environments reveals that these succes-sions have deposited in a carbonated platform of rimmed shelf type. The study of the vertical succes-sion of microfacies shows four main sequences in the form of system tracts of TST and HST, which are made up of shallowing and deepening parasequences. The first lower boundary of the sequences is the type SB1 unconformity, and other identified sequences are the type SB2 unconformity.