Carbonate‐rich megabeds within a Triassic siliciclastic deep‐water system, West Qinling orogenic belt, Central China: Character, processes and implications

Abstract Deep‐water megabeds are a particular type of sediment gravity flow deposit that are anomalously thick and often of distinctive composition compared to the deep‐water strata within which they are embedded. Pure siliciclastic or carbonate megabeds have been widely reported from deep‐marine systems. Less documented are carbonate‐rich mixed megabeds with abundant carbonate clasts in a siliciclastic matrix, which are embedded in siliciclastic deep‐water systems. Here, such examples are reported from outcrops of the Lower Triassic in the West Qinling orogenic belt, central China, with a focus on the character, processes and implications of these carbonate‐rich megabeds. Based on regional geology and characteristics of the encasing siliciclastic turbidites and autochthonous micritic limestones, these megabeds are inferred to have been deposited in a deep marine trough. The megabeds are thick (1 to ca 10 m) compared to surrounding beds (commonly less than 1 m), and are of mixed composition, comprising both siliciclastic grains and shallow‐water carbonate clasts. These megabeds are commonly characterised by a distinctive bipartite or tripartite vertical succession of facies. A complete (tripartite) sequence consists of a basal clast‐supported conglomeratic division (Division I), an intermediate matrix‐supported conglomeratic division (Division II), and an upper normally graded and/or laminated sandy division (Division III). These divisions are interpreted to be deposited from evolving debris flows transitioning to turbidity currents during a single flow event, and are the result of flow deceleration and dilution. The megabeds show variability over very short lateral distances (several tens to a few hundred metres), possibly related to surface relief on the debritic portion of the deposit. A new depositional model is proposed for the mixed deep‐water system, with frequent siliciclastic turbidite deposition within this elongate basin from axially flowing turbidity currents, and episodic deposition from laterally‐supplied carbonate‐rich megaflows that eroded and incorporated the substrate during transport.