Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of African Earth Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jafrearsci Depositional sequences and sea-level changes of the upper Maastrichtian- middle Eocene succession in central Jordan: Evidence from foraminiferal biostratigraphy and paleoenvironments IKhlas Alhejoj a,* , Sherif Farouk b , Youssef S. Bazeen c , Fayez Ahmad d a The University of Jordan, Department of Geology, 11942, Amman, Jordan b Exploration Department, Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute, Nasr City, Egypt c Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Al-Azhar University d Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, Hashemite University, Jordan ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Biostratigraphy Paleogene Planktonic foraminifera Paleoenvironments Unconformity Jordan ABSTRACT The qualitative and quantitative analyses of the foraminiferal assemblages from the upper Maastrichtian -middle Eocene succession at Jabal Ghuzayma section (central Jordan) is utilized to evaluate the biostratigraphic fra- mework and the prevailing paleoenvironments. Nine planktonic biozones (CF3, P4c, P5, and E3-E8) were re- cognized covering the upper Maastrichtian to the middle Eocene. Field observations as well as foraminiferal biostratigraphy and paleoenvironments led to identify five 3rd depositional sequences bounded by four sequence boundaries. Two of these sequence boundaries have long-lasting time gaps across the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/ Pg) and the Paleocene/Eocene (P/E) unconformities. These longtime gaps are linked to the tectonic deformation of the Syrian Arc System (SAS) during the convergence and collision of the Eurasian/Arabian plates. The intera- Ypresian and Ypresian/Lutetian (Y/L) boundaries exhibit a sharp change in microfaunal content suggesting distinctive paleoenvironmental turnover which may be enhanced primarily to the eustatic sea-level changes. 1. Introduction The upper Cretaceous-lower Paleogene successions are widely dis- tributed in Jordan (Fig. 1). It is characterized by rich organic matter formed as part of a nutrient-rich upwelling system as recognized by geochemical and sedimentological evidences (Abed et al., 2005; Powell and Moh’D, 2011; Ali Hussein et al., 2015; Alqudah et al., 2015; Beik et al., 2017; Giraldo-Gomez et al., 2017). Until now, few studies have been published on the foraminiferal biostratigraphy and paleoenvir- onments in Jordan (Karam, 1973; Futyan, 1976; Hamam and Haynes, 1977; Yassini, 1979; Guasti et al., 2005; Farouk et al., 2013, 2014, 2015) with complete absences of micropaleontologic studies on Jabal Ghuzayma section in central Jordan. In addition to, the nature and stratigraphic position of the Ypresian-Lutetian boundary is still mys- terious, which requires more comprehensive investigations and no de- tailed study has been done based upon foraminiferal biostratigraphy and paleobathymetry. The vertical facies changes, planktonic/benthic ratio (P/B%), and benthic assemblages are important tools to determine the paleowater depth (Van Der Zwaan et al., 1999; Jorissen et al., 2007), and hence the relative sea-level changes have been inferred, which is then correlated with the eustatic sea-level curves (Haq et al., 1987; Hardenbol et al., 1998). The goal of this paper is to evaluate the biostratigraphic framework based on the planktonic foraminifera and detect the biostratigraphic gaps as well as the quantitative benthic foraminiferal paleoenvironments to interpret the changes in paleo- water depth and hence determine the relative sea-level oscillations. 2. Geological setting Upper Cretaceous-lower Paleogene succession in Jordan is located on the southeastern Tethyan shelf (Ziegler, 2001; Powell and Moh’D, 2011). It is characterized by episodes of cyclic submergence and emergence caused by the dramatic tectonic movements of the SAS, leading to discrepancies in the different time gaps and sedimentation patterns (Farouk et al., 2014). SAS initiated at the Late Cretaceous time and continuous effects were noted until the Eocene during the con- vergence and collision of the Eurasian/Arabian plates which in turn resulted in the presence of different wide time gaps. The upper https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2019.103663 Received 25 April 2019; Received in revised form 5 October 2019; Accepted 5 October 2019 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ekl_hjouj@yahoo.com (I. Alhejoj), geo.sherif@hotmail.com (S. Farouk), youssefbazeen@yahoo.com (Y.S. Bazeen), fayezahmad3@hotmail.com (F. Ahmad). Journal of African Earth Sciences 161 (2020) 103663 Available online 07 October 2019 1464-343X/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T