Facies Associations and Sequence Stratigraphy of the Toarcian Marrat Formation (Saudi Arabia) and Their Equivalents in Some Gondwanaland Regions

The Toarcian Marrat Formation is exposed in outcrops in central Saudi Arabia and displays a variety of clastic and carbonate facies associated with well-preserved depositional geometries. It is unconformably overlies the Triassic Minjur Formation and it in turn is overlaid by the Middle Jurassic Dhruma Formation. Thirteen lithofacies types can be identified that permit the recognition of five lithofacies associations in a mixed clastic/carbonate platform. These lithofacies range from low-energy peritidal, intertidal, and back-shoal to moderate- and high-energy shoal and foreshoal lithofacies associations. The Marrat Formation exhibits three depositional sequences, each sequence is grouped into a transgressive systems tract (TST) and a highstand systems tract (HST) and then bounded by sequence boundary surfaces (SBSs). The TSTs are generally identified in clastic tidal-flat beds and back-shoal wackestones, while the HST is generally recorded in the carbonate tidal-flat and shoal. The vertical succession of facies associations from peritidal to foreshoal depositional environments is indicative of a deepening upward and retrogradational systems tract, from Lower to Upper Toarcian. The correlation between the studied sections reveals a general shallowing towards the south and the similarities between the studied sequences and others in the Arabian Gulf, the northern Neo-Tethys Plate, and Gond-wanaland countries.