Journal of Geology & Geophysics
Open Access

A preliminary documentation of the coral reefs from Libya

International Conference on Geology

June 22-23, 2015 Florida, USA

Belkasim Khameiss1, William Hoyt1, Saad K El Ebaidi2, Ahmed Muftah2, James Klaus3 and Ann Budd4

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: J Geol Geosci

Abstract :

Corals studies in Libya are very limited, although they play an important role in the oil exploration as they form excellent reservoirs of coral reef buildups at some oil fields of the Sirt Basin (e.g. Intisar �??Idris�?� and Sahabi Fields). Both fields are produced from Paleocene coral reefs. Meanwhile, in Cyrenaica corals are of less importance as they are not reported in subsurface Tertiary rocks, which probably in the environmental settings of these sediments out of the core of reef as occurred in the surface. Meanwhile, corals are reported from older (Jurassic) subsurface successions as in Concession NC-152, but the cementation digenesis led to blocking and destroying the porosity. This study presents the first surface documentation work of eight scleractinian coral species from the exposed sediments in northern Libya, where six taxa reported from Al Jabal al Akhdar region, these include a) an association of huge colonies of Caulastrea sp. and Stylophora sp., from the Middle Eocene Darnah Formation at West Darnah roadcut section. The co-existence of the fast Caulastrea sp. with the slow Stylophora sp. is due to the competition strategy; b) Antiguastrea? sp. is reported from the Oligocene Algal Limestone of Al Bayda Formation at Daryanah �?? Abyar roadcut section; c) Cyphastrea sp. and Aleveopora sp. from Oligo-Miocene Al Faidiyah Formation at Al Fatayah cement quarry and d) Tarbellastraea sp. from Middle Miocene Benghazi Formation at Benghazi cement Quarry. In addition to, two species Astraeaopora sp. and Actinacis parorai are reported from the Upper Miocene sediments of formation �??M�?� in As Sahabi area.