Late Cretaceous transgression on a Cimmerian high (Neka Valley, Eastern Alborz, Iran): A geodynamic event recorded by glauconitic sands

In the Neka Valley (Eastern Alborz, Iran), glaucony-bearing marine sediments of early-middle Santonian age directly overlie Palaeozoic to Triassic units deformed during the Eo-cimmerian orogenic event (Late Triassic). The Upper Cretaceous open marine sediments were deposited on a flat surface lacking any evidence of pedogenesis. The geochemical and morphological features of glaucony grains, which characterize the base (1 to 1.5 m) of the Upper Cretaceous succession, indicate an autochthonous origin of the highly-evolved glaucony, denoting a long-lasting period of low sedimentation rate. The development of glaucony in the observed stratigraphic position is indicative of a rapid drowning of the former Cimmerian relief that cannot be explained by a eustatic rise alone: the palaeo-depth needed for the development of glaucony and for the presence of the observed bathyal foraminifera assemblages is greater than the maximum eustatic excursion documented in the Cretaceous. The occurrence of glaucony in this stratigraphic position reflects thus an important episode of increased subsidence rates, related to a geodynamic event framed in a time-interval of major plate reorganization in the complex puzzle of the Iranian plates: the subsidence event that caused the development of the glauconitic horizon in the Neka Valley could likely represent the effect of a Santonian stage of the complex and long-lasting story of the opening of the Caspian Sea.