Metre-scale cyclicity in Middle Eocene platform carbonates in northern Egypt: Implications for facies development and sequence stratigraphy

• The shallow-water carbonates of the Middle Eocene in northern Egypt represent a Tethyan reef-rimmed carbonate platform.
• Five lithofacies associations were defined and their respective depositional environments were interpreted.
• The facies are characterized by stacked high-frequency cycles with subtidal to intertidal carbonate sequences.
• The investigated sections were subdivided into three third-order sequences, named S1, S2 and S3.

The shallow-water carbonates of the Middle Eocene in northern Egypt represent a Tethyan reef-rimmed carbonate platform with bedded inner-platform facies. Based on extensive micro- and biofacies documentation, five lithofacies associations were defined and their respective depositional environments were interpreted. Investigated sections were subdivided into three third-order sequences, named S1, S2 and S3. Sequence S1 is interpreted to correspond to the Lutetian, S2 corresponds to the Late Lutetian and Early Bartonian, and S3 represents the Late Bartonian. Each of the three sequences was further subdivided into fourth-order cycle sets and fifth-order cycles. The complete hierarchy of cycles can be correlated along 190 km across the study area, and highlighting a general “layer-cake” stratigraphic architecture. The documentation of the studied outcrops may contribute to the better regional understanding of the Middle Eocene formations in northern Egypt and to Tethyan pericratonic carbonate models in general.