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What is an ENVIRONMENT?
What is a Facies?
5. CARBONATESDEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
WHERE DO DISTINCT CARBONATE FACIES ACCUMULATE?
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5. Carbonates Depositional Environments
Large-scale carbonate platforms are subdivided into distinct
depositional subenvironments, based on the dominant
depositi onal processes and the sediment types deposited:
1- Platform interiors (low energy),
2- Platform interiors (high energy) & platform margin sand shoals,
3- Reefs,
4- Slope & base of slope,
5- Offshore systems,
6- Deep seas.
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Lagoons are shallow-water depositional environments, <10m deep, protected
from strong wave action. They occur in the broad interiors of rimmed shelves or
behind inner ramp shoal belts. Where circulation is restricted, water
temperatures & salinities may become highly elevated.
* Carbonate production is typically dominated by phototrophs (i.e. organisms
dependent on high light intensity) since Cenozic, sea-grasses.
- Patch reefs: common in deep open lagoons; Reef mounds: low relief banks
5.1. Platform Interior (LOW ENERGY)
Bioturbation is very important. Mudstone burrows are filled with coarser material.
Platform interiors include embayments, subtidal lagoons, beaches, and tidal flats.
Salinities in such settings are predomninatly normal marine, hypersaline,
periodically brackish or they may vary seasonally between these states.
Lagoonal sediments are typically peloidal, comprising feacal pellets generated
by mud ingestors and grains micritized by endolithic micro-organisms.Platform carbonate sand is commonly redistributed into the lagoons by storm.
Ooids transported into the lagoons may be cemented into small clusters in the
quiet platform interior to form grapestones.
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The innermost platform areas are commonly restricted hypersaline and support a lower
diversity biota. Some foraminifera, ostracods, algae, oncoids, calcispheres, gatsropods
and molluscs are common grain types.
** Where highly restricted, platform interiors in arid areas may become hypersaline due to
high evaporation and poor water circulation. Gastropods dominate the biota in the
subtidal zone, while microbial mats (stromatolites) occur in the shallow subtidal and
intertidal zones.
Shoreline carbonates are referred to as peritidal (term meaning ‘around the tides’; Folk,
1973): nearshore, very shallow subtidal zones, tidal flats & supratidal zones, and coastal
marshes.
Peritidal rocks can reflect the following subenvironments:
Subtidal zone: permanently submerged, very shallow-water area, strongly
influenced by wave action and tidal currents {high energy env-t; coarse sediments}
Intertidal zone: between normal- and high-tide levels, alternately flooded by
seawater and exposed, influenced by climate {low energy env-t;
dessication/fenestare, evaporite minerals, soils}
Supratidal zone: above high-tide level, flooded only during high spring tides &
storms, largely controlled by climate {in semi-arid /arid settings evaporite & wind
deflation; in humid settings marshes}
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Platform interior sandbodies may develop along shorelines, in platform
interiors or, less commonly, from shallow offshore banks.
* Shoreline carbonate sandbodies possess similar characteristics to siliciclastic
sand accumulations in comparable settings, including barrier complexes
(shoreface-backshore, tidal inlets, deltas, strandplains, etc …
Platform margin sandbodies made up of bioclastic and oolitic sands occur
extensively at the margins of carbonate platforms, reflecting the dissipation of
most wave and tidal energy at such margins.* Key factors: topography, orientation with respect to dominant winds & waves,
and tidal range.
5.2. Platform Interior (HIGH ENERGY)
& Platform Margin
These are mainly carbonate sandbodies , prominent features of high-energy
subtidal to intertidal environments in many platform settings.
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5.3. Reefs and Carbonate Slope Deposystems
Since frame-building organisms have not always been present, reef mounds have
been and remain much more dominant – today, this is true except where corals can
grow.
Reefs can be also characterized on the nature of organisms which constructed them
(e.g. algae, stromatoporoids, rudists, corals); or on their morphologies (e.g. atoll, faro,
barrier and fringing reefs).
Reef growth may produce large wave-resistant reliefs creating different sub-
environments (e.g. fore reef, reef front, crest, back reef) and inducing subsequently
several processes.
Reefs are usually classified into frame-built reefs (those that possess calcareous
framework) and reef mounds (those that lack a rigid structure).
The term ‘reef’ means any biological inf luenced carbonate accumulation, which
was large enough to have developed topographic relief above the sea f loor. Here
biological carbonate sediment production and environmental modif ication arereali zed to maximum extent.
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REEFS
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Three main forms of reef have been recognised in modern
oceans.
Fringing reefs are built out directly from the shoreline and lack
an extensive back-reef lagoonal area.
Reef settings
fringing reefs build at the coastline
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Barrier reefs, of which the Great Barrier Reef of eastern
Australia is a distinctive example, are linear reef forms thatparallel the shoreline, but lie at a distance of kilometres to tens
of kilometres offshore: they create a back-reef lagoon area
which is a large area of shallow, low-energy sea, which is
itself an important ecosystem and depositional setting.
Reef settings
barrier reefs form offshore on the shelf and
protect a lagoon behind them
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Patch reefs: In open ocean areas coral atolls develop on
localised areas of shallow water, such as seamounts, whichare the submerged remains of volcanic islands.
In addition to these settings of reef formation, evidence from
the stratigraphic record indicates that there are many
examples of patch reefs, localised build-ups in shallow water
areas such as epicontinental seas, carbonate platforms and
lagoons.
Reef settings
patch reefs or atolls are found isolated
offshore, for instance on a seamount
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REEF PROCESSES:
Constructive processes
Destructuve processes
Sedimentation
CementationCements constitute up to 80% of the volume
of some reefs cementstone reefs!!!
CONTROLS ON REEF GROWTH:
Modern corals grow best at depths less than 100m in waters of near
normal sal ini t ies which vary little in temperature outside the range 25-
29°C.
Reefal communities were not constant throughout the geological time-scale
(e.g. Early Jurassic such organisms were absent carbonate platformsare ramp-like).
Many reefs exhibit prominent biotic and sedimentological zonation which is
controlled by changes in wave energy, light intensity, degree of exposure
and sedimentation rate.
REEFS
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Reef Complexes (Fig. 9.50):These are large reef tracts – 100s to 1000s of km long; e.g. those developed at
rimmed shelf margins.
- Reef crest & reef front are the main productive zones, extending from the
highest point on the reef (the crest ) to a point where frame construction ceases
(downward to 70-100m below sea-level) – Breakage is maximum at the crest bywave action and periodical subaerial erosion.
- Forereef slope extends from the reef front to the basin floor and is fed by
sediment derived from the reef through collapse, gravity flows, storms, etc…
- Reef flat is located behind the reef crest and can be broadly divided into a
pavement (narrow zone lying immediately behind the crest with a water depth at
most of a few meters) and a sand apron (extending into the platform interior;
water depth about 10m).
- Backreef lagoons include sediments varying with water depth & degree of
shelter provided by reefal rim.
Reef Complexes
Reef Patches
Reef Mounds
REEF FACIES AND ENVIRONMENTS:
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Patch Reefs (Fig. 9.52):
These are isolated reefs which develop in shallow-water environments (e.g.
platform interiors, inner ramps) – from a few 10s of m to 10 km across.
- Regional variation in the style of patch reef development reflect differences in
water depth and environmental energy.
- Availability of suitable substrates appears to be a principle control on the
distribution of patch reef complexes.
Reef Mounds (and mud mounds):
These are by far the most abundant reefal structures in the geological record.
They are typically matrix-rich, frame-deficient, lensoid (biohermal) or tabular
(biostromal) structures.- They can be largely composed of bioclastic accumulations or carbonate mud or
peloidal.
- They are also subject to the same environmental controls that govern all reef
growth.
REEFS
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Carbonate slope heights range from 10s to 1000s m with the slope angles from
~1 to 90°. Slope profiles are mostly concave upwards, but highly variable.
Grainy, non-cohesive mud-free sediments (e.g. carbonate sands,
conglomerates) are able to construct steeper slopes than muddy sediments.Early lithification of carbonate mud and early cementation of granular sediments
grant carbonates the possibility to build steeper slopes relatively to silicilcastics.
3 types of carbonate slopes have been identified from modern platforms:
a- Erosional slopes [steep; >25°
] represent exposed submarine rockwalls or slopestruncated by collapse of large sections of the platform margin,
b- Bypass slopes [relatively steep; >10-12°] accumulate drapes of pelagic sediment,
yet they also host material from shallow-water platform edges,
c- Accretionary slopes [low angle; <10°] are built of sediment gravity flow deposits.
The major site of deposition is the lower slope apron {mud-supported debris flows &
coarse turbidites}
CARBONATE SLOPE DEPOSYSTEMS
On high-rel ief , steep-sided carbonate platforms, there is an abrupt transition at
the shal low-water platform margin to a transitional slope facies in which the
bulk of sediment has been re-sedimented.
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Storms produce a wide range of stratification types in offshore siliciclastic
regimes and have a major effect in carbonate and mixed siliciclastic-carbonate
sediments, particularly in ramp settings. In fact, below fairweather wave base,
storms are the dominant control on sediment movement.
* Cyclicity based on the ‘packaging’ of storm beds is often recognized.
Since burrowing is inhibited in deep waters, high preservation potential is
achieved towards distal parts of ramps, while bioturbation dominates shallower
zones..
Hummocky cross-stratification (HSC): a form of medium- to large-scale
cross-stratification, in which the undulating and gently dipping laminae
preserve a 3-D bedform comprising large amplitude (1-5m), low relief (0.1-
0.5m) mounds and troughs.
5.4. Offshore Carbonate Deposystems
Similarly to siliciclastics settings, criteria used to characterize offshore carbonate
deposits are bed thickness, grain size, sedimentary structures, and faunas. Usually
sediments are finely laminated muddy (finely grained) carbonates.
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5.6. Deep Seas
Deep-water sands and gravels are interpreted in terms of their transporting,depostional and postdepositional processes (after Bouma, 1962).
Deep-water sediments are distributed in 3 principles environments of deposition
(Fig. 10.1):
- basin floor,
- submarine fan,
- slope apron
Bouma Sequence: medium grained sand/mud turbidites (graded beds) with a
preferential sequence of sedimentary structure.
Originally, deep sea sediments were thought of consisting mostly of pelagic clays
and biogenic oozes deposited in quiet undisturbed floors. Later sands were also
demonstrated to occur in deep seas as a result of turbidity currents (densitycurrents). Such deposits are graded, they were called ‘greywacke’ and their
formation ‘flysch’. Now we use ‘turbidite’ for deposits that are produced by
turbidity currents.
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