Strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and calcium isotope ratios (44Ca/40Ca-44Ca/42Ca) of the Miocene Dam Formation in Qatar: Tools for stratigraphic correlation and environment analysis

Abstract

The Dam Formation in Qatar is a series consisting of calcareous (calcite, dolomite) and evaporitic sediments (gypsum, celestite) that developed under subtidal through supratidal conditions passing towards younger and older series in an environment of deposition more akin to modern beach deposits. In the present study 87Sr/86Sr ratios, δ44/40Ca and δ44/42Ca data are discussed together with δ 13C and δ18O values obtained during an environmental analysis carried out previously. Rather uniform isotope curves of the Sr, Ca and O isotopes for tidal deposits are replaced by more oscillating ones when these tidal-influenced regimes became substituted for by a more wave-dominated regime. Calcium isotope ratios still at its infancy and not fully understood seem to provide a new tool in carbonate petrography when it comes to an interpretation of the environment of deposition and calcification of dolomitic series. The Sr isotopes not only indicate an influx of more primitive Sr from the hinterland but also allow for a refinement of the stratigraphy, which yields a late Aquitanian to early Burdigalian age of sedimentation for the Dam Formation in Qatar.