Sedimentology (2011) 58, 566570

doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2010.01163.x

Hummocky cross-stratication-like structures in deep-sea turbidites: Upper Cretaceous Basque basins (Western Pyrenees, France) by Mulder et al. (2009), Sedimentology, 56, 9971015: Discussion
ROGER H IGGS Geoclastica Ltd, 7 Breakwater Road, Bude, Cornwall EX23 8LQ, UK (E-mail: rogerhiggs@geoclastica.com) INTRODUCTION Mulder et al. (2009) found a few event beds with a hummocky cross-stratication (HCS)-like structure in the upper three formations (ca 1300 m thick; Coniacian-Campanian) of the Basque calcareous ysch (Guethary Flintstone Flysch, Socoa Marly Limestone and Hayzabia Flysch, in ascending order). Hummocky cross-stratication is usually attributed to storm-wave inuence (Harms et al., 1975), implying shelf water depths. However, Mulder et al. (2009) accepted the deepsea interpretation of the Basque calci-turbidites by previous authors and interpreted the HCS-like structure as antidune stratication formed by turbidity current standing waves, following Prave & Duke (1990) who found scarce beds with similar, short-wavelength (decimetre) HCS in the subjacent Behobie Limestones. This Discussion questions the antidune and deep-sea interpretations, proposing instead that the structure is (small-scale) HCS and that the studied event beds are shelf storm beds, supporting the original hypothesis that HCS is invariably a storm-wave indicator (Harms et al., 1975), with implications for petroleum reservoir prediction.

Ichnofauna
The only evidence for water depth cited by Mulder et al. (2009) is ichnofaunal, from two PhD theses of the late 1980s. An ichnofauna of mostly... Planolites, Granularia, Helminthopsis and Fucoides (not italicised) suggested a mid to lower bathyal environment (800 to 2000 m...) to Mulder et al. (2009, p. 1002). However, Granularia and Helminthopsis are known in shallow-marine deposits (Buatois et al., 1998; Garca-Garca et al., 2009); the former is a junior synonym of Ophiomorpha (Uchman, 2009). Planolites is notoriously undiagnostic. What Mulder et al. (2009) meant by Fucoides needs clarifying: the name was historically applied to other ichnogenera, such as Chondrites and Zoophycos (Hantzschel, 1975), both of which can be shallow marine (Archer & Maples, 1984; Bromley & Ekdale, 1984; Knaust, 2004). In the under lying Behobie Limestones, Nereites, Chondrites, Helminthopsis and Zoophycus (sic) were reported and interpreted as bathyal by Prave & Duke (1990), but are again consistent with shallow marine (Nereites is eurybathic; Mangano et al., 2000).

Benthonic foraminifera
QUESTIONS ABOUT DEEP-SEA INTERPRETATION The benthonic foraminifera of the studied formations were not mentioned by Mulder et al. (2009). Open-marine planktonic foraminifera are present (Mulder et al., 2009), consistent with outer-shelf deposition. Benthonic assemblages in Behobie shales between event beds were interpreted as mostly bathyal, with water depths of only 100 to 400 m inferred for the lower one-third of the formation (Prave & Duke, 1990, table 1). The top interval was interpreted as lower bathyal (1200 to >2000 m), based on the association of Ammobaculites, Ammodiscus, Bathysiphon, Cibicides and Rhabdammina. However, these genera can

Stratigraphic context
The bathymetry is unconstrained by the stratigraphic context of the interval bearing the HCS like structure. Immediately below the Behobie Limestones are more carbonates (Calcaires dAblaintz; Mulder et al., 2009, g. 3), on which little is published (negative Google search). Upwards, the Basque ysch passes into hemipelagites (Mulder et al., 2009, p. 1002). 566

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Discussion and Reply also occur in outer shelf deposits (Zivkovic & Glumac, 2007).

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Structures in associated beds

Apart from the HCS-like beds, the studied formations contain turbidite-like beds interpreted as various Bouma sequences (Mulder et al., 2009, g. 3). Even if truly unaffected by waves, such beds are consistent with an outershelf setting (Brenchley, 1985; Myrow & Southard, 1996). Alternatively, some of these supposed turbidites may have been misinterpreted. For example, beds that grade upwards from massive to parallel laminated (Mulder et al., 2009) could be top-missing storm beds (Walker et al., 1983). Other beds are capped by ripples of unstated symmetry (Mulder et al., 2009). If asymmetrical, the ripples could be combined-ow types. Similarly, cross-lamination logged schematically as asymmetrical (Mulder et al., 2009, g. 3) could be of combined-ow origin (Myrow & Southard, 1991). In the uppermost formation studied by Mulder et al. (2009), the Hayzabia Flysch, symmetric ripples can appear within the turbidite... interpreted as resonance ripples produced by the vibration effect of the movement of the gravity ow turning quickly in autosuspension on the sea oor (Bourrouilh, 1987, p. 76). An alternative interpretation is that these are wave-formed ripples. Flutes, common in the Basque ysch (Prave & Duke, 1990; Mulder et al., 2009), can abound in storm beds (Myrow & Southard, 1996).

Details of the hummocky cross-straticationlike structures

In the beds illustrated by Mulder et al. (2009, gs 4 to 9), constructional hummocks can be succeeded by: (i) an onlapping swaley-ll layer (p. 1007); or (ii) migrating ripples (p. 1007), including single cross-lamina sets with opposite climb in adjacent ripples [gs 7E and 9F obscured, respectively, by syn-depositional deformation (see below) and by upward erosional truncation]; or (iii) post-event shale. In formations of diverse ages elsewhere, similar structures, in beds of comparable thickness and grain size, have been interpreted as small-scale HCS and as climbing combined-ow-ripple lamination (unidirectional plus oscillatory ow), in interpreted storm beds of both carbonate (Chaudhuri, 2005) and siliciclastic composition (Myrow & Southard, 1991, 1996; Myrow et al., 2002; Lamb et al., 2008). Opposed climb (Mulder et al., 2009, gs 7E and 9F) is a characteristic of sinusoidal ripple lamination (Chaudhuri, 2005, g. 5), a structure originally dened from Pleistocene glaciolacustrine deposits of very shallow-water origin (<10 m; Jopling & Walker, 1968); it was recently attributed to combined ow, based partly on association with HCS (Chaudhuri, 2005). The same structure in Ordovician event beds, some carbonate and some siliciclastic, was called climbing wave-ripple lamination by Kreisa (1981; see opposed climb in his g. 8c and d). Hummocky cross-stratication-like structures with unidirectional migration were interpreted as climbing (unidirectional) current-ripple lamination by Mulder et al. (2009). However, the rounded, near-symmetrical, ripple prole (Mulder et al., 2009, gs 5A, 6D and E) is characteristic of climbing combined-ow-ripple lamination (Myrow et al., 2002). Some of the beds studied by Mulder et al. (2009) show soft-sediment deformation internally, including micro-thrusts (their g. 7A and B) and contorted lamination, consistent with liquefaction caused by syn-depositional cyclic loading by storm waves. The mainly biogenic carbonate composition (Mulder et al., 2009), or particular grain-size distribution, or grain shapes (platy?), may have rendered the sediment prone to liquefaction.

Megaturbidite
Near the top of the Behobie Limestones is a 15 m calcarenite interval that extends at least 95 km laterally, which is interpreted as a megaturbidite (Bourrouilh, 1987; Prave & Duke, 1990). The megaturbidite interpretation does not preclude an outer shelf setting if the turbidity current originated by river ooding rather than slumping. However, a 70 cm interval within the supposed megaturbidite shows HCS (Prave & Duke, 1990, gs 3b and 4b), whose interpretation as antidune stratication requires a discrete basal ow (within the turbidity current) whose calculated thinness of only 5 cm is remarkable (Prave & Duke, 1990, p. 536). This difculty, and the sediment-source problem arising from a 15 m bed of such great extent, are eliminated by interpreting the 15 m calcarenite as a forced-regressive nearshore sand (cf. Plint & Nummedal, 2000), underlain and overlain by wave-erosion surfaces (regressive and transgressive).

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Discussion and Reply (average of 17 beds) is bidirectionally transverse to the utes (Mulder et al., 2009, g. 11).

Slump
The Slump of Erromardie (Mulder et al., 2009, g. 3), separating the Guethary and Socoa units, does not negate shelf deposition if it formed in situ by vertical foundering (cf. Oliveira et al., 2009), triggered by storm-wave loading or tsunami loading, or by earthquakes.

REVISED MODEL FOR BASQUE FLYSCH DEPOSITION Based on the foregoing evidence, the HCS-like structure studied by Mulder et al. (2009) is interpreted here as true, small-scale HCS. The upper Basque ysch (Guethary, Socoa and Hayzabia units) is interpreted as largely or entirely outer-shelf deposits. The occurrence of HCS in only a few of the beds is consistent with a distal shelf setting (cf. Aigner & Reineck, 1982), as is the short wavelength of the HCS (relatively small wave orbital diameter; Yang et al., 2006). Association of the HCS beds with Bouma-like beds (Mulder et al., 2009) is also consistent with an outer shelf, as mentioned above. The presence of distal carbonate platform facies to the west, down-palaeoow from the supposed deep water Turbiditic basin (Mulder et al., 2009, g. 2), supports the proposal that the basin was instead a shelf. The plate-tectonic setting (Bourrouilh et al., 1995; Mulder et al., 2009) suggests that the shelf conguration was an east-closing gulf facing the proto-Atlantic Ocean. To conrm or refute the shelf model, more data need to be published from the detailed eld analyses ... performed on ... more than 90% of the vertical stratigraphy of the three formations (Mulder et al., 2009, p. 1002), to reveal, for example, what proportion of the utes, ripples and cross-lamination is of the combined-ow type (Myrow & Southard, 1996; Myrow et al., 2002; Dumas et al., 2005). A full palaeoecological analysis of the trace fossils and benthonic foraminifera is also required.

Debris ows
Associated with turbidite-like beds in the Hayzabia Flysch are thick (decimetre to metre) breccias with extrabasinal clasts (Bourrouilh, 1987; Mulder et al., 2009). Some breccias grade up into a calci-turbidite comprising a massive division passing up into parallel and near-parallel lamination (Bourrouilh, 1987, gs 4 to 8), locally showing low-angle truncations or upward convexity (gs 7a and 8). Bourrouilh (1987) interpreted the breccias as debrites formed by failure of a retreating shelf edge. This interpretation conicts with: (i) overall shelf-edge advance (ca 30 km, Turonian-Maastrichtian; Bourrouilh, 1987); and (ii) abundant Palaeozoic clasts (Bourrouilh, 1987), implying canyons that incised deeply enough to cut through the full thickness of the presumed shelf equivalents of the Basque ysch. A more likely interpretation is that the breccias are shelf tsunami beds similar to, but deposited more seaward than, an intra-shoreface example interpreted by Cantalamessa & Di Celma (2005), likewise with angular, extrabasinal clasts. The Hayzabia breccias contain megaclasts of penecontemporaneous Aturian facies (Bourrouilh, 1987), a Senonian argillaceous limestone known in situ further east (Winnock & Pontalier, 1970). Northward Pyrenean thrust advance, starting in Turonian time and younging west (Bourrouilh et al., 1995), is interpreted here to have uplifted and eroded the Aturian facies, yielding megaclasts for westward transport by tsunami backwash, consistent with the westward palaeogradient indicated by Hayzabia utes (Mulder et al., 2009, g. 11).

IS HUMMOCKY CROSSSTRATIFICATION GLOBALLY CONFINED TO STORM DEPOSITS? Except for the two examples questioned here (Prave & Duke, 1990; Mulder et al., 2009), the author is unaware of any published reports of HCS, or HCS-like structures, in strata reliably interpreted as deep-sea deposits. In Australian Proterozoic beds, Christie-Blick et al. (1990) likened small-scale hummocks and swales to those of Prave & Duke (1990), but invoked a shallow-water origin because associated beds show oscillation ripples and combined-ow

DOUBT ABOUT ANTIDUNE INTERPRETATION As support for their antidune interpretation, Mulder et al. (2009) drew attention to examples of HCS-like lamination migrating up-palaeocurrent (based on associated utes). However, in the lowest of the three formations, the migration

2010 The Author. Journal compilation 2010 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 58, 566570

Discussion and Reply ripples, and wave-inuenced ripple lamination. In Canadian Cretaceous rocks, a structure described as HCS-like is linear in some cases and largely lacks truncations (Yagishita, 1994), unlike HCS. The structure was interpreted as antidune stratication (Yagishita, 1994), consistent with a deep-sea slope interpretation of the enclosing shales (Higgs, 1990). Thus, HCS may truly be conned to stormwave-inuenced environments (Harms et al., 1975). The warning that HCS-like structures must be interpreted carefully to avoid misinterpretation of the sedimentary environment (Mulder et al., 2009, p. 1014) applies equally in reverse: to avoid misidentifying and/or misinterpreting HCS, its context must be analysed carefully. Strata containing reliably identied HCS cannot be of deep-sea origin, with implications for predicting petroleum reservoir geometry and architecture.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I thank Dr Paul Myrow for commenting on the manuscript, Dr John Frampton for his opinion on the palaeobathymetric interpretation of the foraminifera and Dr Luis Buatois for remarks on the ichnology.

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Manuscript received 6 August 2009; revision accepted 10 March 2010

2010 The Author. Journal compilation 2010 International Association of Sedimentologists, Sedimentology, 58, 566570