Digital Characterization of an Aptian Carbonate Platform Margin from the Western Maestrat Basin (E Iberia)

A digital outcrop model of a flat-topped non-rimmed carbonate platform margin of Aptian age was acquired using LIDAR technology. This was the basis for the reconstruction and modelling of the outcropping carbonate platform system. The resulting three-dimensional model displays the depositional geometries and facies heterogeneity. It also demonstrates the value of digital outcrop models to characterize features at different scales that are difficult to observe in the outcrops, as well as the potential of this methodology to refine outcrop-based sequence stratigraphic analyses.