CENOMANIAN BIOSTRATIGRAPHY AND PALEOENVIRONMENTS IN THE NORTHWEST CARMEL REGION, NORTHERN ISRAEL

Planktic foraminifera from three cores and an outcrop section from the northwest Carmel region, northern Israel were studied. The sequence a nalysed, between the top Yagur and base Muhraqa Formations, comprises the Isfiye, Bet Oren, Khureibe and Junediya chalky Formations. Rotalip ora brotzeni, R. reicheli and the lower part of the R. cushmani Zones date this chalky sequence as Early to Middle Cenomanian. The Cenomania n chalks were deposited in an outer shelf environment. Five ecostratig raphic intervals of alternating low and high relative abundance of pla nktic foraminifera were recognized, reflecting sea-level changes. Thes e intervals correspond to third order cycles 2.2 to 2.4 of the supercy cle UZA-2 of Haq et al. (1988) and to sequences 2 to 5 of Robaszynski et al. (1993). The lowstand, transgressive and highstand phases of seq uence 2 were recognized within ecostratigraphic intervals 1-3 of the I sfiye Formation. The late Early Cenomanian lowstand of sequence 3 is f ound within ecostratigraphic interval 3 and corresponds to the Bet Ore n Formation. This lowstand and the following transgressive and highsta nd phases of ecostratigraphic interval 4 of the Kureibe Formation coin cides with the combined sequences 3-4. Ecostratigraphic interval 5 cor responds to sequence 5. A hiatus, probably spanning the Upper Cenomani an to Lower Turonian, terminates the Cenomanian chalk complex. (C) 199 7 Academic Press Limited.