Abstract
New data from lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic research, sub-surface investigations, and remote sensing studies have allowed the formalization of lithostratigraphic nomenclature in the Sahabi area, North Central Libya. The base of sedimentation is the Late Miocene Benghazi Formation of the Ar Rajmah Group, formerly “Formation M.” These sediments were deposited under shallow marine conditions and are of Tortonian age, ranging from biozones NN8 to NNl la, with an age range of 8.23–10.70 Ma.87Sr/86Sr dates from these levels range from 8.99 Ma to 9.36 Ma. The pack of sediments lying unconformably above the Benghazi Formation comprises the Late Miocene Sahabi Formation, the Pliocene Qarat Weddah Formation, and the Pleistocene-Recent “Formation Z.” The Sahabi The formation is divided into two members: the “Lower Member,” including the gypsiferous former “Formation P” and lower portion of “Member T,” and the “Upper Member,” including the non-gypsiferous and fossil-rich Units U-1, U-D, and U-2. Vertebrate fossils from U-1 and U-2 represent a highly diverse mosaic of paleohabitats ranging from the steppe, savanna, forest, large river, and estuarine to marine offshore, which makes the Sahabi fauna more valuable for biostratigraphic comparison with a wide variety of penecontemporaneous sites. The open country fauna shows Sahabi to have been a crossroads fauna correlating to European mammalian biozones MN12 and MN13, with a best-fit age estimate of 6.8 Ma for Unit U-1 and 6.0 Ma for Unit U-2. The closed and water-tied faunal elements from Sahabi are more relictual and include a highly endemic anthracothere shared with the essential hominin-bearing site of Toros Menalla, Chad, correlating most closely with the Sahabi U-2 fauna. The Chorora and Adu-Asa Formations in the Awash Basin of Ethiopia, the Qaret El-Muluk Formation of Wadi El-Natrun, Egypt, and the Nawata Formation of Lothagam, Kenya, are close in biostratigraphic age to the “Upper Member” of the Sahabi Formation. Sahabi shows the closest similarity in Eurasia to the MN12/13 site of Baynunah, Abu Dhabi and the MN13 site of Maramena, Axios Valley, Greece. The upper age of the Sahabi U-2 fauna is constrained by the unconformity that forms a Margin Erosion Surface (MES) separating the Messinian-aged Sahabi Formation from the overlying Pliocene Qarat Weddah Formation, dated elsewhere in the Mediterranean Basin to 5.96 Ma to 5.33 Ma.
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Shawaihdi, M.E., Muftah, A., Bernor, R., Boaz, N. (2023). Stratigraphy and Age of the Sahabi Formation, Libya. In: Çiner, A., et al. Recent Research on Sedimentology, Stratigraphy, Paleontology, Tectonics, Geochemistry, Volcanology and Petroleum Geology . MedGU 2021. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43222-4_14
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