Lower Cretaceous formations (Berriasian/Valanginian to Albian) from the East of the Paris Basin: lithostratigraphy and depositional environments.
The Paris Basin is a Meso-Cenozoic intracontinental basin characterised during the Early Cretaceous by a continental evolution. However, in its southeastern part, due to transgressions originating from the Tethys, the Lower Cretaceous continental deposits were occasionally interrupted by the deposition of marine sediments. In this area, the sedimentary succession includes above the Lower Tithonian “Calcaires du Barrois”, the transgressive “Sables de Soulaines” Formation on the Late Jurassic emersion surface. This formation showing facies characteristic of a tidal flat is reputed to be Valanginian in age, but there is no dating element and could as well begin in the Late Berriasian. Above,…