Controls and predictability of carbonate facies architecture in a Lower Jurassic three-dimensional barrier-shoal complex (Djebel Bou Dahar, High Atlas, Morocco) KLAAS VERWER* 1 , GIOVANNA DELLA PORTA  , OSCAR MERINO-TOME ´   2 and JEROEN A.M. KENTER à *Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1085, Amsterdam, 1081 HV, The Netherlands (E-mail: kverwer@rsmas.miami.edu)  School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences, Cardiff University, Main Building, Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3YE, UK àChevron Energy Technology Company, Appelgaarde 4, Voorburg 2272 TK, The Netherlands. ABSTRACT Spatial information on lithofacies from outcrops is paramount for understanding the internal dynamics, external controls and degree of predictability of the facies architecture of shallow-water carbonate-platform tops. To quantify the spatial distribution and vertical stacking of lithofacies within an outer-platform shoal-barrier complex, integrated facies analysis and digital field technologies have been applied to a high-relief carbonate platform exposed in the Djebel Bou Dahar (Lower Jurassic, High Atlas, Morocco). The outer platform is characterized by subtidal, cross-bedded, coarse grainstone to rudstone grading into supratidal, pisoidal packstone-rudstone with tepees that together formed a 350 to 420 m wide shoal-barrier belt parallel to the margin. This belt acted as a topographic high separating a restricted lagoon from the subtidal, open marine region. Low-energy tidal flats developed on the protected flank of the barrier facing the lagoon. Lithofacies patterns were captured quantitatively from outcrop and integrated into a digital outcrop model. The outcrop model enabled rapid visualization of field data and efficient extraction of quantitative data such as widths of facies belts. In addition, the spatial heterogeneity was captured in multiple time slices, i.e. during different phases of cyclic base-level fluctuations. In general, the lateral continuity of lithofacies is highest when relative water depth increased during flooding of the platform top, establishing low-energy subtidal conditions across the whole platform, and when the accommodation space was filled with tidal flat facies. Heterogeneity increased during deposition of the relief- building bar facies that promoted spatial diversification of depositional environments during the initial phases of accommodation space creation. Cycles commonly are composed of a thin transgressive tidal flat unit, followed by coated-grain rudstone bar facies. Lateral to the bar facies, pisoidal- grainstone beach deposits accumulated. These bar and beach deposits were overlain by subtidal lagoonal facies or would grow through the maximum flooding and highstand. There the bars either graded into supratidal pisoidal facies with tepees (when accommodation space was filled) or were capped by subaerial exposure (due to a sea-level fall). Modified embedded Markov 1 Present address: Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA. 2 Present address: Instituto Geolo ´gico y Minero de Espan ˜a, Parque Cientı´fico de Leo ´n, Avenida Real 1, Edificio 1, 24006 Leo ´ n, Spain. Sedimentology (2009) 56, 1801–1831 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2009.01058.x Ó 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation Ó 2009 International Association of Sedimentologists 1801