TITLE:
A Preliminary Documentation of the Coral Reefs from Libya
AUTHORS:
Belkasim Khameiss, William Hoyt, Saad K. El Ebaidi, Ahmed M. Muftah, James Klaus, Ann Budd
KEYWORDS:
Cyrenaica Corals, Benghazi Cement Quarry, Persististrombus coronatus
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Geology,
Vol.6 No.4,
April
21,
2016
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
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 diagenesis
leads 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 sixtaxa is 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 road cut section. Theco-existence of the fastCaulastrea sp. with the slow Stylophora sp. is due to the competition
strategy; b) Antiguastrea sp. which is reported from the
Oligocene Algal Limestone of Al Bayda Formation at Daryanah-Abyar Roadcut
section; c) Cyphastrea sp. andAleveopora 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, two species Astraeaopora sp. and Actinacis paroraiare
reported from the Upper Miocene sediments of formation “M” in As Sahabi area.