Incised valleys and tidal seaways: the example of the Miocene Uzes-Castillon basin, SE France

The sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Miocene deposits of the Uzes-Castillon basin are revisited. This basin, located in SE France at the junction between the perialpine foreland basin and the W Mediterranean margin, sits in a syncline that formed during the latest Cretaceous Pyrenean tectonic phase. It records the succession of shallow-water mixed siliciclastic to dominantly bioclastic carbonates that alternate with shelf marls. The elastic carbonates were accumulated as a stack of subtidal dunes and bars that were formed by tidal currents channelized in a seaway following the syncline axis. The marls indicate deposition in more protected and locally deeper waters, as interfluves of the seaway were drowned. Borehole data suggest that the marls are encased over tens of meters in the underlying bioclastic deposits, thus pointing to incised-valley fills. Contrarily to what is observed in the main Rhodanian basin, the molassic deposits are not restricted to transgressive systems tracts but may also correspond to forced regressive systems tracts. Four depositional sequences are identified, ranging from the Lower Burdigalian to the Langhian. They constitute a transgressive-regressive sequence set which might express the uplift of the area starting in the Late Burdigalian. This is consistent with the incision of the Middle Miocene deposits into the Lower Miocene ones as observed in other places of the main Rhodanian basin.