Satal Formation

Satal Fm

Period:

Cretaceous, Paleogene

Age Interval:

Maastrichtian-Danian

Province:
Sirte Basin

Type Locality and Naming

The Satal Fm is made up of the lower Kalash Limestone, and upper Hagfa Shale. The lower Satal Fm of the Kalash Limestone is exposed around northern part of Agedabia and Hameimat Troughs (Abugares, 2007)..

Synonym: The Kalash Limestone is also known as the Lower Sabil Formation. The upper Hagfa Shale is also known as the Lower Sabil Carbonates (Abugares, 2007). The lower Kalash Limestone is coeval to the Waha Limestone and Samah Dolomite elsewhere in the Sirte Basin.

References: Abugares, 2007

Lithology and Thickness

The lower Kalash Limestone reaches a maximum thickness of 600m, and consists of white, tan or grey to dirty white argillaceous calcilutite intercalated with thin beds of dark grey shale. The upper Hagfa Shale consists of shale with thin limestone interbeds that are more common in the upper part (Abugares, 2007).

Lithology Pattern:

Clayey limestone

Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

It conformably overlies the Sirte Shale Fm of the Rakb Gr.

Upper contact

It is conformably overlain by the Beda Fm.

Regional extent

The Kalash Limestone is widely distributed in most of the Sirt Basin. The upper Hagfa Shale is located throughout the central and western Sirt Basin (Abugares, 2007).

GeoJSON

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Fossils

In the Kalash Limestone, both benthic and planktonic foraminifera are abundant (Globotruncana, Rugoglobigerinea), which indicates that this unit was deposited during the Maastrichtian time under open-marine, probably neritic, conditions (Abugares, 2007).

Age

Schematic stratigraphic column of Ahlbrant (2001) places as Maastrichtian (entire?) (Kalash Limestone) and into the Danian (the Hagla Shale)

Age Span:

Beginning stage:

Maastrichtian

Fraction up in beginning stage:

0.00

Beginning date (Ma):

72.17

Ending stage:

Danian

Fraction up in the ending stage:

0.5

Ending date (Ma):

63.85

Depositional setting

Open marine to neritic (Kalash Limestone) and deep-marine, probably outer to neritic upper bathal for the Hagfa shale in the central and western part of the Sirte Basin (Abugares, 2007).

Depositional pattern:

Additional Information

Compiler:

T. S. Ahlbrandt (2001): The Sirte Basin Province of Libya—Sirte-Zelten Total Petroleum System, U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 2202–F

R.C. Selley (1997): The Sirte Basin of Libya. In: African Basins. Sedimentary Basins of the World, 3, edited by R.C. Selley (Series Editor: K.J. Hsu), Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, pp. 27-37.

Abugares, Miloud M. (2007): Deposition, Diagenesis, and Reservoir Development of the Cretaceous Lidam Formation, SE Sirt Basin, Libya. Durham e-Theses. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2599/

Elkanouni, I. E. D. (2014). Sedimentology, Sequence stratigraphy and Spatial-temporal Patterns of the late Paleocene Succession, western Sirt Basin, Libya, Durham e Theses. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10538/