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Milankovitch forcing recorded in gamma ray logs and cyclicity in subsurface Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Jubaila–lower Arab platform carbonates, Saudi Arabia

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Abstract

We document for the first time that downhole gamma ray logs and carbonate cycles in the upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Jubaila and superjacent lower Arab platform carbonates (up to 240 m thick) in Saudi Arabia exhibit Milankovitch forcing. The succession consists of a lower carbonate mud-prone succession (deeper shelf) with storm beds and hardgrounds arranged in upward-deepening units. The overlying ramp slope interval has intraclastic–oncoidal rudstone and lime mudstone/wackestone, while the upper grain-dominated middle and inner ramp facies are upward-shallowing parasequences of stromatoporoid carbonates, peloid grainstone–packstone, and beneath anhydrite strata, ooid grainstone, and microbial dololaminite. Gamma ray signal in the Jubaila–lower Arab interval is related to a fine siliclastic component in the carbonates and is the highest near parasequence tops or associated floodbacks. The accumulation rates were determined by assessing the correlation for various sedimentation rates against an astronomical model and tested against a null hypothesis of no astronomical forcing. Detrended gamma ray logs were tuned using either the 405 or 100 kyr cycle, and the resultant spectral peaks are compatible with the astronomical solution for the Upper Jurassic. The ~70 m (~1 Myr) long-obliquity modulation cycle formed the third-order sequences. Long eccentricity (405 kyr) and short eccentricity (~100 kyr) formed the fourth-order sequences/parasequence sets, while obliquity and precession formed parasequences. Milankovitch forcing was responsible for ~50% of the gamma ray signal, the remainder being non-Milankovitch noise. This study shows that downhole gamma ray logs in platform carbonates are a potentially important record of global climate changes.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mingsong Li, Linda Hinnov, and Lee Kump of Pennsylvania State University for making the Acycle program available to researchers. We also thank the many members of the Jurassic sequence stratigraphy team at Saudi Aramco Oil Co. for discussions and ideas. The senior author was responsible for the time series analysis, and Mousa logged many of the cores and developed much of the sequence stratigraphic framework, while Al-Temimi analyzed the same interval just to the south of the study area. Al-Tawil was the driving force behind the regional sequence stratigraphic studies of the Jurassic. JFR thanks Saudi Aramco for support over the years and for providing the opportunity to mentor Aramco students at Virginia Tech and Dhahran. Fawwaz Al-Khaldi provided many helpful suggestions.

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  1. Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA

    James Frederick Read

  2. Saudi Aramco Oil Co., Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Yousef Mousa, Khalaf O. Al-Temimi & Aus A. Al-Tawil

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  1. James Frederick Read
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Read, J.F., Mousa, Y., Al-Temimi, K.O. et al. Milankovitch forcing recorded in gamma ray logs and cyclicity in subsurface Upper Jurassic (Kimmeridgian) Jubaila–lower Arab platform carbonates, Saudi Arabia. Arab J Geosci 15, 1452 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-022-10664-8

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