Warm‐temperate,marine, carbonate sedimentation in an Early Miocene,tide‐influenced,incised valley; Provence,south‐east France

The Saumane‐Venasque compound palaeovalley succession accumulated in a strongly tide‐influenced embayment or estuary. Warm‐temperate normal marine to brackish conditions led to deposition of extensive cross‐bedded biofragmental calcarenites. Echinoids, bryozoans, coralline algae, barnacles and benthic foraminifera were produced in seagrass meadows, on rocky substrates colonized by macroalgae and within subaqueous dune fields. There are two sequences, S1 and S2, the first of which contains three high‐frequency sequences (S1a, S1b and S1c). Sequence 1 is largely confined to the palaeovalley with its upper part covering interfluves. Each of these has a similar upward succession of deposits that includes: (i) a basal erosional surface that is bored and glauconitized; (ii) a discontinuous lagoonal lime mudstone or wackestone; (iii) a thin conglomerate generated by tidal ravinement; (iv) a transgressive systems tract series of cross‐bedded calcarenites; (v) a maximum flooding interval of argillaceous, muddy quartzose, open‐marine limestones; and (vi) a thin highstand systems tract of fine‐grained calcarenite. Tidal currents during stages S1a, S1b and S1c were accentuated by the constricted valley topography, whereas basin‐scale factors enhanced tidal currents during the deposition of S2. The upper part of the succession in all but S1c has been removed by later erosion. There is an overall upward temporal change with quartz, barnacles, encrusting corallines and epifaunal echinoids decreasing but bryozoans, articulated corallines and infaunal echinoids increasing. This trend is interpreted to be the result of changing oceanographic conditions as the valley was filled, bathymetric relief was reduced, rocky substrates were replaced as carbonate factories by seagrass meadows and subaqueous dunes, and the setting became progressively less confined and more open marine. These limestones are characteristic of a suite of similar cool‐water calcareous sand bodies in environments with little siliciclastic or fresh water input during times of high‐amplitude sea‐level change wherein complex inboard antecedent topography was flooded by a rising ocean.     

Solution-collapse breccias of the Minkinfjellet and Wordiekammen Formations, Central Spitsbergen, Svalbard: a large gypsum palaeokarst system

Large volumes of carbonate breccia occur in the late syn-rift and early post-rift deposits of the Billefjorden Trough, Central Spitsbergen. Breccias are developed throughout the Moscovian Minkinfjellet Formation and in basal parts of the Kazimovian Wordiekammen Formation. Breccias can be divided into two categories: (i) thick, cross-cutting breccia-bodies up to 200 m thick that are associated with breccia pipes and large V-structures, and (ii) horizontal stratabound breccia beds interbedded with undeformed carbonate and siliciclastic rocks. The thick breccias occur in the central part of the basin, whereas the stratabound breccia beds have a much wider areal extent towards the basin margins. The breccias were formed by gravitational collapse into cavities formed by dissolution of gypsum and anhydrite beds in the Minkinfjellet Formation. Several dissolution fronts have been discovered, demonstrating the genetic relationship between dissolution of gypsum and brecciation. Textures and structures typical of collapse breccias such as inverse grading, a sharp flat base, breccia pipes (collapse dolines) and V-structures (cave roof collapse) are also observed. The breccias are cemented by calcite cements of pre-compaction, shallow burial origin. Primary fluid inclusions in the calcite are dominantly single phase containing fresh water (final melting points are ca 0 °C), suggesting that breccia diagenesis occurred in meteoric waters. Cathodoluminescence (CL) zoning of the cements shows a consistent pattern of three cement stages, but the abundance of each stage varies stratigraphically and laterally. δ¹⁸O values of breccia cements are more negative relative to marine limestones and meteoric cements developed in unbrecciated Minkinfjellet limestones. There is a clear relationship between δ¹⁸O values and the abundance of the different cement generations detected by CL. Paragenetically, later cements have lower δ¹⁸O values recording increased temperatures during their precipitation. Carbon isotope values of the cements are primarily rock-buffered although a weak trend towards more negative values with increasing burial depth is observed. The timing of gypsum dissolution and brecciation was most likely related to major intervals of exposure of the carbonate platform during Gzhelian and/or Asselian/Sakmarian times. These intervals of exposure occurred shortly after deposition of the brecciated units and before deep burial of the sediments.     

黔南桂西早中三叠世碳酸盐台地边缘和斜坡沉积模式及其演化

黔南桂西地区(东经105°-107°,北纬24°20＇-26°40＇)地跨扬子准地台和加里东褶皱带(华南褶皱带)两个一级大地构造单元。属于南盘江沉积盆地的北部或西北边缘。区内早、中三叠世碳酸盐地层出露良好、层序完整,为台地边缘和斜坡沉积。详细研究该区碳酸盐台地边缘和斜坡沉积,对了解台地边缘特征和演化、海平面变化以及边缘的构造作用等有着重要的理论意义,为确定三叠糸南盘江沉积盆地的西北或北部边缘的构造性质提供可靠的沉积学依据。     

下扬子地区青龙群上部角砾岩成因问题

1989—1990年,安徽省地质科学研究所与德国下萨克森州不伦瑞克大学地质古生物研究所在下扬子地区合作进行了中三叠统的蒸发岩沉积特征及含钾性评价的研究,对下扬子地区青龙群上部(东马鞍山组)地表角砾岩层进行了详细的野外地质工作。我们认为这套以往一直被看作盐溶倒塌成因的角砾岩,主要是碎屑流沉积的结果,有少量构造角砾岩、膏溶崩坍角砾岩。碎屑流沉积发育于长江北岸的宿松、安庆、巢湖、无为和长江南岸的贵池、铜陵、繁昌、南京、镇江、溧阳等地,呈北东—南西向带状展布,分布广泛、规模大,最大沉积厚度超过百米以上,十分引人注目。     

Palaeokarst-influenced depositional and diagenetic patterns in Upper Permian carbonates and evaporites, Karstryggen area, central East Greenland

The Karstryggen area of eastern Greenland represents the western edge of sedimentation in the Jameson Land Basin, an arm of the northern Zechstein seaway. Upper Permian strata of this area were deposited as two major sequences. The first marine incursion transgressed largely peneplaned Lower Permian strata and deposited thin, paralic conglomerates, sandstones and shales (the Huledal Formation) followed by a thick package of carbonates and evaporites (the Karstryggen Formation). Although the Karstryggen Formation represents the transgressive maximum of this sequence, it contains only marginal or restricted marine strata, including micritic, stromatolitic and peloidal carbonates and thick, but localized, bedded gypsum deposits. These lithofacies indicate that relatively arid climates prevailed in this basin, as in most of the Zechstein region. A major regression, associated with a change to a more humid climate, terminated Karstryggen sedimentation. Pre-existing evaporites and carbonates underwent diagenetic alteration, including widespread calcitization and dissolution of gypsum. More importantly, topographic relief in excess of 120 m was generated by fluvial drainage systems and karstic sinkholes. A second marine incursion, accompanied by a return to a semi-arid climate, drowned this high relief topography, producing a complex sequence of strata (the Wegener Halvø Formation) in which sedimentation was greatly influenced by the rugged underlying terrain. Marine cemented algal-molluscan grainstones draped pre-existing palaeotopography during the initial stages of flooding. Continued drowning led to differential sedimentation on ‘highs’ and in ‘lows’. Oolitic and bryozoan-brachiopod grainstones formed as shoals on the crests of most prominences, whereas shales, conglomeratic debris flows, evaporites, or oolitic turbidites were deposited in the lows. More restricted sedimentation took place in the westernmost areas which lay closest to the mainland shoreline and were situated to the west of a palaeotopographic ridge. There, oolitic, stromatolitic and evaporitic strata were deposited under hypersaline conditions indicative of a return to more arid climatic conditions. Three subcycles mark smaller scale relative changes of sea level that occurred during deposition of the Wegener Halvø Formation; they are delimited by regional surfaces with moderate relief (5–20 m) developed during subaerial exposure. Widespread diagenetic changes, including leaching of aragonitic grains, dissolution/collapse brecciation of evaporites and meteoric calcite cementation, occurred in association with these smaller scale sequence boundaries, again reflecting climatic oscillations. Relative sea level fluctuations, coupled with regional climate changes, played a dominant role in determining both depositional and diagenetic relations in these strata. These features undoubtedly extend into subsurface parts of this basin as well as into yet unexplored areas of the northern Zechstein Basin and Barents Shelf, and may have economic significance for the localization of hydrocarbons.     

Carbonate depositional sequence development on active fault blocks: the Albian in the Castro Urdiales area, northern Spain

The Aptian to lowermost Albian carbonate platform of Castro Urdiales (Cantabria, northern Spain) was broken up by extensional tectonic movements shortly after the beginning of the Albian. Block faulting characterized this rifting episode, the effects of which waned during the Albian. In crestal locations tilting of the fault blocks caused the subaerial exposure of parts of the older platform, resulting in intense karst diagenesis. Differential subsidence of the blocks controlled the development of a crestal residual carbonate platform (Arenillas), which was surrounded by deeper water on both sides. Seven unconformities related to platform exposure and karstification are identified on the Arenillas platform, and form the basal boundaries of seven depositional sequences (S1-S7). On the platform, lowstand systems tract deposits consist of breccias filling caves, and grainstones and debris flow deposits filling incised canyons. Transgressive plus highstand systems tracts consist of rare marls plus shallow water rudistid, coral and chondrodontid limestones. In the basin, the unconformities are erosional surfaces at the base of resedimented limestones, marls or sandy or silty siliciclastics (lowstand systems tracts). Transgressive plus highstand systems tracts in this setting consist of marls and hemipelagic marly limestones. Tectonism is believed to be the main control on sequence formation, and only a few sequence boundaries (e.g. the base of S6 in the Upper Albian inflatum Zone) can be correlated with eustatic events.     

Mid-Cretaceous basin margin carbonates, east-central Mexico

Isolated, high relief carbonate platforms developed in the intracratonic basin of east-central Mexico during Albian-Cenomanian time. Relief on the platforms was of the order of 1000 m and slopes were as steep as 20–43°. Basin-margin debris aprons adjacent to the platforms comprise the Tamabra Formation. In the Sierra Madre Oriental, at the eastern margin of the Valles-San Luis Potosi Platform, an exceptionally thick (1380m) progradational basin to platform sequence of the Tamabra Formation can be divided into six lithological units. Basinal carbonate deposition that preceded deposition of the Tamabra Formation was emphatically punctuated by an allochthonous reef block 1 km long by 0·5 km wide with a stratigraphic thickness of 95 m. It is encased in Tamabra Formation unit A, approximately 360 m of peloidal-skeletal wackestone and lithoclastic-skeletal packstone that includes some graded beds. Unit B is 73 m of massive dolomite with sparse skeletal fragments and intraclasts. Unit C, 114m thick, consists of structureless skeletal wackestone passing upward into graded skeletal packstone. Interlaminated lime mudstone and fine grained bioclastic packstone with prominent horizontal burrows are interspersed near the top. Unit D is 126 m of breccia with finely interbedded skeletal grainstone and burrowed or laminated mudstone. The breccias contain a spectrum of platform-derived lithoclasts and basinal intraclasts, up to 10 m in size. The breccias are typically grain supported (rudstone) with a matrix of lightly to completely dolomitized mudstone or skeletal debris. Beds are up to several metres thick. Unit E is 206 m of massive, sucrosic dolomite that replaced breccias. Unit F is approximately 500 m of thick bedded to massive skeletal packstone with abundant rudists and a few mudstone intraclasts. Metre scale laminated lime mudstone beds are interspersed. The section is capped by El Abra Formation platform margin limestone, consisting of massive beds of caprinid packstone and grainstone with many whole valves. Depositional processes within this sequence shift from basinal pelagic or peri-platform sedimentation to distal, platform-derived, muddy turbidity currents with a large slump block (Unit A); through more proximal (coarser and cleaner) turbidity currents (Unit B?, C); to debris flows incorporating platform margin and slope debris (Units D, E). Finally, a talus of coarse, reef-derived bioclasts (Unit F) accumulated as the platform margin prograded over the slope sequence. Interspersed basinal deposits evolved gradually from largely pelagic to include influxes of dilute turbidity currents. Units containing turbidites with platform-derived bioclasts reflect flooding of the adjacent platform. Breccia blocks and lithoclasts were probably generated by erosion and collapse of the platform during lowstands. Laminated, black, pelagic carbonates, locally cherty, are interbedded with both breccias and turbidites. At least those interbedded with turbidites may have been deposited within an expanded mid-water oxygen minimum zone during relative highstands of sea level. They are in part coeval with mid-Cretaceous black shales of the Atlantic Ocean.     

The Silurian geology of Gotland, Sweden

Gotland is an island in the central Baltic, long recognized as the most outstanding outcrop of Silurian shallow-water marine sediments in the world. These represent deposition in tropical environments in an epeiric sea on the small continent of Baltica. The sediments are interbedded limestones and shales with subordinate sandstones and are developed as a carbonate platform on the underlying Precambrian, Cambrian and Ordovician. Particularly spectacular are reef deposits, rich in stromatoporoid sponges, which occur throughout the Gotland sequence. The sequence is almost undisturbed and provides an excellent field laboratoy to study a variety of Silurian facies.     

贺兰奥拉槽早古生代深水重力流体系的沉积特征和充填样式

位于鄂尔多斯西缘的贺兰构造带为一中元古代一古生代的奥拉槽。在区内的中寒武和中奥陶统中识别了一套巨厚的深水重力流沉积,其中包括下斜坡滑塌泥石流复合体、浊积扇以及碳酸盐岩斜坡扇裙等沉积类型。主要的相单元包括充填沟道或进入扇面形成的泥石流钙质角砾岩和砾岩、充填辫状水道的多层叠置的砂岩和砂砾岩、上叠扇的砂、泥岩互层以及浊积砂屑或含砾砂屑灰岩等。在中奥陶世该奥拉槽发展成一深水一半深水海槽,沿盆地西侧发育有浊积扇,而东侧仅有碳酸盐岩滑塌扇裙。它们可能是沿深水盆地两侧深大断裂产生的陡坡或水下断崖分布的,代表了早古生代贺兰奥拉槽在强烈沉陷期特定的深水盆地充填。     

Meteoric lithification of catastrophic rockslide deposits: Diagenesis and significance

Deposits of catastrophic rockslides composed of lithologies rich in carbonate minerals may undergo precipitation of cements that can be used to proxy-date the rockslide event and/or subsequent geomorphic changes of the rockslide mass.In the Alps, localized to widespread lithification of post-Glacial rockslide deposits is observed in lithologies ranging from limestones and dolostones to metacarbonates to calcphyllites. Lithification of rockslide deposits to breccias may be localized to meteoric ‘runoff-shadows’ below larger boulders, or may comprise a layer of breccia or may affect a rockslide mass down its base. In addition, precipitation of cements and small stalactites may take place in megapores on boulder undersides. Cements found in rockslide deposits comprise skalenohedral calcite, prismatic calcite, blocky calcite, calcitic micrite and micropeloidal calcitic cement and, rarely, botryoidal aragonite. Initial cement formation probably is driven by meteoric dissolution–re-precipitation of (mini-) micritic abrasive rock powder generated by dynamic disintegration during the rockslide event. Preliminary ²³⁴U/²³⁰Th ages of rockslide cements support a concept that cementation starts immediately or early after a rockslide event. In rockslide deposits of calcphyllite with accessory pyrite, oxidation of pyrite probably also propels the process of carbonate dissolution–re-precipitation. Limestone-precipitating springs emerging from rockslide masses, and well-cemented talus slopes and fluvial conglomerates percolated by rockslide-derived groundwaters, indicate that rockslide deposits remain diagenetically active long after emplacement.     

Temperate shelf carbonate sediments in the Cenozoic of New Zealand

Shelf limestones are widely distributed in New Zealand Cenozoic sequences and are especially well developed in the Oligocene. Detailed field and laboratory work on several Oligocene occurrences, and reconnaissance field-work at most other sections have elucidated the major characteristics of the environment, texture, composition and diagenesis of these sediments. Several generalizations emerge which contrast with the commonly accepted characteristics of shallow marine carbonate sedimentation established from studies of tropical and subtropical deposits. The limestones are either calcarenites or, less commonly, calcilutites and, in general, these two lithologies are mutually exclusive, both in time and space. The allochems and interparticle carbonate mud (where developed) in calcarenitic limestones consist almost exclusively of fragmented skeletal material derived primarily from bryozoan, echinodermal, benthic foraminiferal, barnacle, brachiopod, bivalve and coralline red algal tests. The calcilutitic limestones consist mainly of whole and disintegrated tests of pelagic foraminifers and coccolithophorids. Non-skeletal carbonate components such as ooids, pellets and aggregates are conspicuously absent from both lithologies. Reefal structures are also absent or rare and are mainly oyster reefs. The limestones commonly contain a significant content of terrigenous material and/or glauconite and at the stratigraphic level the limestones are intimately associated with terrigenous formations. The distribution of the carbonate sediments has been governed mainly by rate of supply of river-derived terrigenous material, by subsequent dispersal patterns of this material over the shelf, and by current sorting. As a consequence of selective grain transport, bedding in the limestones is often defined by the cyclic alternation on a wide range of scales of carbonate units that are relatively enriched and relatively impoverished in terrigenous material. The primary (carbonate) mineralogy of the carbonate sediments was completely dominated by magnesium calcite and/or calcite with only small amounts of aragonite and no dolomite or associated evaporite minerals. The metastable magnesium calcite and aragonite grains were probably altered on, or close below, the shallow sea-floor. Among other factors, transformation was encouraged by the absorption of magnesium in pore waters by montmorillonitic clays and by the complete oxidation of all organic matter in the bottom sediments. Magnesium calcite grains were stabilized by texturally non-destructive incongruent dissolution, but aragonite was often dissolved without trace from the sediment, especially in grainstones. Thus submarine diagenesis has been characterized by selective dissolution phenomena. Cementation by granular and syntaxial rim orthosparite of calcite and/or ferroan calcite composition occurred mainly during shallow subsurface burial and was associated with the intergranular solution of calcitic skeletal fragments, especially at those levels in the sediment relatively enriched in terrigenous material. This lithification process has worked to accentuate and modify original litho-logic differences and sedimentary structures in the primary sediments and has produced a kind of rhythmic vertical alternation of less well cemented, microstylolitized, impure limestone beds (‘cement-donor’ beds) and well cemented, more open textured, purer limestone beds (‘cement-receptor’ beds). The New Zealand limestones formed between latitudes 60° S and 35° S under generally cool temperate to warm temperate climate conditions. Oxygen isotopes suggest that surface waters were mainly significantly cooler than 20°C, so that shelf waters may have experienced extended periods of undersaturation with respect to calcium carbonate. Generally open circulation patterns maintained near normal salinity values over the entire shelf platform. Calculated sedimentation rates for the New Zealand carbonate sediments are generally very low (< 5 cm/1000 years). Periods of more active deposition commonly alternated with longer periods of non-deposition and by-passing or erosion. It is concluded that many characteristics of the New Zealand shelf limestone occurrences are explained best by a temperate latitude model of shallow marine carbonate sedimentation.     

黄骅坳陷古近系沙河街组一段下部湖泊碳酸盐沉积相及其对油气分布的控制作用?

黄骅坳陷王徐庄油田古近系沙河街组一段下部厚40-50m，由碳酸盐岩与泥页岩互层组成，为湖泊中的碎屑岩-碳酸盐岩混积台地沉积。碳酸盐岩主要为石灰岩，其中包括亮晶颗粒石灰岩、泥晶颗粒石灰岩和泥晶石灰岩。颗粒主要为腹足类，也有鲕粒和内碎屑。根据沉积特征，混积台地可进一步划分为亮晶颗粒石灰岩滩、泥晶颗粒石灰岩滩和滩间等三种相。亮晶颗粒石灰岩滩为高能持续动荡环境，水深在正常浪基面之上，以亮晶颗粒石灰岩沉积为主；泥晶颗粒石灰岩滩为间歇动荡环境，水深在正常浪基面附近，以泥晶颗粒石灰岩沉积为主；滩间为安静低能环境，水深在正常浪基面之下，以泥晶石灰岩和页岩沉积为主。滩主要分布在台地边缘。同生断层的活动控制了台地的形成及滩的展布。亮晶颗粒滩是最好的储集相带，泥晶颗粒滩次之，滩间最差。油气分布主要受沉积相控制，高产井并不是位于构造高部位的滩间，而是位于低部位的亮晶颗粒石灰岩滩。     

中上扬子地区晚奥陶世岩相古地理及其油气地质意义

中上扬子地区上奥陶统主要发育庙坡组、宝塔组、临湘组(涧草沟组)、五峰组和观音桥组。笔者通过对研究区野外露头及钻井剖面的考察,总结前人研究成果,利用岩石学、古生物学、生态学及室内分析等方法将其划分为潮坪相、浅海陆棚相和深水盆地相3种沉积相类型。潮坪相以沉积灰岩、白云岩、钙质粉砂岩和粉砂岩等为特征。浅海陆棚相主要沉积龟裂纹灰岩、瘤状灰岩、页岩和粉砂质页岩。深水盆地相主要岩性为黑色碳质页岩、粉砂质页岩与硅质页岩,产以营漂浮生活的笔石为主的生物组合。岩相古地理研究表明,晚奥陶世桑比-凯迪早中期,受加里东构造运动影响,华南板内碰撞挤压作用显著,汉南隆起、川中隆起、川西-滇中-黔中-雪峰隆起不断抬升扩大,中上扬子地区表现为海平面相对上升,原本镶边型碳酸盐台地被淹没,沉积了大范围的浅海陆棚相龟裂纹灰岩和瘤状灰岩。凯迪晚期-赫南特期,隆起面积继续扩大,构造围限作用加剧,中上扬子地区发育大面积黑色碳质页岩、粉砂质页岩和硅质页岩。尤其川东南宜宾-泸州,川北旺苍-南江及黔北渝东武隆道真地区五峰组黑色碳质和硅质页岩,具很好的生烃潜力,应视为下一步烃源岩及页岩气勘探开发的重点研究区域。     

Shallow-water gravity-flow deposits, Chapel Island Formation, southeast Newfoundland, Canada

A remarkable suite of shallow-water, gravity-flow deposits are found within very thinly-bedded siltstones and storm-generated sandstones of member 2 of the Chapel Island Formation in southeast Newfoundland. Medium to thick siltstone beds, termed unifites, range from non-graded and structureless (Type 1) to slightly graded with poorly developed lamination (Type 2) to well graded with lamination similar to that described for fine-grained turbidites (Type 3). Unifite beds record deposition from a continuum of flow types from liquefied flows (Type 1) to turbidity currents (Type 3). Calculations of time for pore-fluid pressure dissipation support the feasibility of such transitions. Raft-bearing beds consist of siltstone with large blocks or‘rafts’ of thinly bedded strata derived from the underlying and adjacent substrate. Characteristics suggest deposition from debris flows of variable strength. Estimates of debris strength and depositional slope are calculated for a pebbly mudstone bed using measurable and assumed parameters. An assumed density of 2.0 g cm^-1 and a compaction estimate of 50% gives a strength estimate of 79.7 dyn cm^-2 and a depositional slope estimate of 0.77°. The lithologies and sedimentary structures in member 2 indicate an overall grain-size distribution susceptible to liquefaction. Inferred high sediment accumulation rates created underconsolidated sediments (metastable packing). Types of sediment failure included in situ liquefaction (‘disturbed bedding’), sliding and slumping. Raft-bearing debrites resulted from sliding and incorporation of water. Locally, hummocky cross-stratified sandstone directly overlies slide deposits and raft-bearing beds, linking sediment failure to the cyclical wave loading associated with large storms. The gravity flows of the Chapel Island Formation closely resemble those described from the surfaces of modern, mud-rich, marine deltas. Details of deltaic gravity-flow deposition from this and other outcrop studies further our understanding of modern deposits by adding a third dimension to studies primarily carried out with side-scan sonar.     

Sequence stratigraphic framework for mixed aeolian,peritidal and marine environments: Insights from the Pennsylvanian subtropical record of Western Pangaea

Due to difficulties in correlating aeolian deposits with coeval marine facies, sequence stratigraphic interpretations for arid coastal successions are debated and lack a unifying model. The Pennsylvanian record of northern Wyoming, USA, consisting of mixed siliciclastic–carbonate sequences deposited in arid, subtropical conditions, provides an ideal opportunity to study linkages between such environments. Detailed facies models and sequence stratigraphic frameworks were developed for the Ranchester Limestone Member (Amsden Formation) and Tensleep Formation by integrating data from 16 measured sections across the eastern side of the Bighorn Basin with new conodont biostratigraphic data. The basal Ranchester Limestone Member consists of dolomite interbedded with thin shale layers, interpreted to represent alternating deposition in shallow marine (fossiliferous dolomite) and supratidal (cherty dolomite) settings, interspersed with periods of exposure (pedogenically modified dolomites and shales). The upper Ranchester Limestone Member consists of purple shales, siltstones, dolomicrites and bimodally cross‐bedded sandstones in the northern part of the basin, interpreted as deposits of mixed siliciclastic–carbonate tidal flats. The Tensleep Formation is characterized by thick (3 to 15 m) aeolian sandstones interbedded with peritidal heteroliths and marine dolomites, indicating cycles of erg accumulation, preservation and flooding. Marine carbonates are unconformably overlain by peritidal deposits and/or aeolian sandstones interpreted as lowstand systems tract deposits. Marine transgression was often accompanied by the generation of sharp supersurfaces. Lags and peritidal heteroliths were deposited during early stages of transgression. Late transgressive systems tract fossiliferous carbonates overlie supersurfaces. Highstand systems tract deposits are lacking, either due to non‐deposition or post‐depositional erosion. The magnitude of inferred relative sea‐level fluctuations (>19 m), estimated by comparison with analogous modern settings, is similar to estimates from coeval palaeotropical records. This study demonstrates that sequence stratigraphic terminology can be extended to coastal ergs interacting with marine environments, and offers insights into the dynamics of subtropical environments.     

Marine cements in mid-Tertiary cool-water shelf limestones of New Zealand and southern Australia

Large areas of southern Australia and New Zealand are covered by mid‐Tertiary limestones formed in cool‐water, shelf environments. The generally destructive character of sea‐floor diagenesis in such settings precludes ubiquitous inorganic precipitation of carbonates, yet these limestones include occasional units with marine cements: (1) within rare in situ biomounds; (2) within some stacked, cross‐bedded sand bodies; (3) at the top of metre‐scale, subtidal, carbonate cycles; and (4) most commonly, associated with certain unconformities. The marine cements are dominated by isopachous rinds of fibrous to bladed spar, interstitial homogeneous micrite and interstitial micropeloidal micrite, often precipitated sequentially in that order. Internal sedimentation of microbioclastic micrite may occur at any stage. The paradox of marine‐cemented limestone units in an overall destructive cool‐water diagenetic regime may be explained by the precipitation of cement as intermediate Mg‐calcite from marine waters undersaturated with respect to aragonite. In some of the marine‐cemented limestones, aragonite biomoulds may include marine cement/sediment internally, suggesting that dissolution of aragonite can at times be wholly marine and not always involve meteoric influences. We suggest that marine cementation occurred preferentially, but not exclusively, during periods of relatively lowered sea level, probably glacio‐eustatically driven in the mid‐Tertiary. At times of reduced sea level, there was a relative increase in both the temperature and the carbonate saturation state of the shelf waters, and the locus of carbonate sedimentation shifted towards formerly deeper shelf sites, which now experienced increased swell wave and/or tidal energy levels, fostering sediment abrasion and reworking, reduced sedimentation rates and freer exchange of sediment pore‐waters. Energy levels were probably also enhanced by increased upwelling of cold, deep waters onto the Southern Ocean margins of the Australasian carbonate platforms, where water‐mass mixing, warming and loss of CO₂ locally maintained critical levels of carbonate saturation for sea‐floor cement precipitation and promoted the phosphate‐glauconite mineralization associated with some of the marine‐cemented limestone units.     

Facies distribution and retreat of Middle Triassic platform margin, Guizhou province, south China

The southern margin of the vast Yangtze platform in central Guizhou Province, China, retreated during the Anisian (early Middle Triassic) by shedding skeletal debris and boundstone blocks into the margin of the adjacent basin. Anisian platform deposits are shoaling-up cycles that commonly terminated in subaerial exposure. Platform-margin facies are obscured by massive dolomitization and mechanical erosion. Distal basin deposits are terrigenous mudstone and siltstone. At the basin margin a wedge of mixed carbonate and terrigenous rocks consists of (A) thin-bedded dolostone and limestone, (B) lime breccia with thin-bedded mudstone, and (C) lime mudstone with breccia. Blocks within the breccias indicate that the shelf margin contained extensive boundstone formed by ‘Tubiphytes,’encrusting organisms, and early marine cement. Interspersed thin beds of skeletal packstone represent unlithified skeletal debris at the platform margin. The profile of the shelf margin from detailed mapping indicates 1.7–2.7 km of platform-margin retreat during deposition of a basin-margin wedge 250 m thick. Intertonguing of various basin-margin facies reflects alternating minor episodes of advance and retreat of the margin. Near-parallelism of the tongues suggests low relief at the platform margin. An upward stratigraphic progression to more distal, carbonate-free, terrigenous basin facies indicates a cessation of carbonate production on the platform owing to emergence during early Anisian time. Retreat may have occurred entirely by collapse of blocks less than 100 m wide and 30 m thick, the largest observed dimensions. A re-entrant in the margin 7 km wide and 10 km deep could also reflect collapse. Retreat occurred along 175 km of the platform margin. The lack of platform-margin facies along this front suggests 3–7 km of retreat and a total area of 875 km². The Anisian platform-margin retreat in Guizhou is one of relatively few examples of platform-margin retreat in the geological record.     

Reef margin collapse, gully formation and filling within the Permian Capitan Reef: Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, USA

An area of reef margin collapse, gully formation and gully fill sedimentation has been identified and mapped within Left Hand Tunnel, Carlsbad Caverns. It demonstrates that the Capitan Reef did not, at all times, form an unbroken border to the Delaware Basin. Geopetally arranged sediments within cavities from sponge–algal framestones of the reef show that the in situ reef today has a 10° basinwards structural dip. Similar dips in adjacent back-reef sediments, previously considered depositional, probably also have a structural origin. Reoriented geopetal structures have also allowed the identification of a 200-m-wide, 25-m-deep gully within the reef, which has been filled by large (some  >15 m), randomly orientated and, in places, overturned blocks and boulders, surrounded by finer reef rubble, breccias and grainstones. Block supply continued throughout gully filling, implying that spalling of reef blocks was a longer term process and was not a by-product of the formation of the gully. Gully initiation was probably the result of a reef front collapse, with a continued instability of the gully bordering reef facies demonstrated by their incipient brecciation and by faults containing synsedimentary fills. Gully filling probably occurred during reef growth, and younger reef has prograded over the gully fill. Blocks contain truncated former aragonite botryoidal cements, indicating early aragonite growth within the in situ reef. In contrast, former high-magnesian calcite rind cements post-date sedimentation within the gully. The morphology of cavern passages is controlled by reef facies variation, with narrower passages cut into the in situ reef and wider passages within the gully fill. Gully fills may also constitute more permeable zones in the subsurface.     

Origin of dolomitization on the Barbwire Terrace, Canning Basin, Western Australia

A thick, areally extensive subsurface sequence of Upper Devonian carbonates occurs on the Barbwire Terrace in the Canning Basin of Western Australia. It is a platform sequence in which most of the shallow water lithologies have been thoroughly dolomitized. Slightly deeper water marls have remained as limestones. The major, regional dolomite type in the sequence is not restricted to peritidal lithologies and forms large thicknesses of dolomite (up to 600 m) with no primary calcite. A small volume of evaporitic, supratidal dolomite is present at one location. This dolomite is derived from highly saline fluids developed in an arid supratidal environment. Replacement dolomite of the regional dolomite type has a xenotopic form, with undulose extinction, and irregular crystal boundaries. In addition, saddle dolomite cements appear to have precipitated contemporaneously with the major phase of replacement dolomite. This suggests the regional dolomite type was precipitated at slightly elevated temperatures. Dolomitized stylolites and cements appear to indicate that dolomitization occurred after cementation and pressure solution. Geochemically, the synsedimentary supratidal and regional dolomite types are quite distinctive. Supratidal dolomites have δ18O values which are significantly higher (δ18O=?2 to +1‰ (PDB)) than the regional dolomite type (δ18O=?9 to ?2‰ (PDB)). Assuming the lowest δ18O values for the sabkha dolomite represent replacement in marine waters, the oxygen isotopic composition for Upper Devonian Canning Basin marine dolomite would be around δ18O=?2‰ (PDB). The petrographic and geochemical characteristics of the regional dolomite type support a burial diagenetic origin. However, sources of magnesium in current burial dolomitization models appear insufficient to account for the large volume of dolomite on the Barbwire Terrace. Therefore, it is suggested that dolomitization may have taken place in a near-surface environment with a major recrystallization event superimposed during burial diagenesis.     

徐州地区震旦系贾园组的风暴沉积

徐州地区震旦系下部的贾园组具有丰富典型的风暴沉积标志,包括各种冲刷－充填构造、丘状交错层理、碎屑流沉积、粒序层理及卷曲层理等。通过详细的野外观测及室内研究,根据风暴沉积标志的组合可划分出6种风暴沉积序列类型。其中,类型Ⅰ为具粒序层理的薄层含粉砂灰岩,形成于风暴浪基面以下的远源风暴浊流的末梢;类型Ⅱ以渠模与丘状交错层理的组合为特征,出现在风暴浪基面与晴天浪基面之间;类型Ⅲ为风暴流成因的碎屑流沉积内碎屑灰岩与底面的冲刷沟槽、丘状交错层理的组合,是形成于晴天浪基面附近的槽道碎屑流型风暴沉积;类型Ⅳ为具颗粒流沉积特征的内碎屑灰岩与冲刷面构造及丘状交错层理的组合,丘状纹层段中常见卷曲层理,形成于滩前陆棚斜坡的上部;类型Ⅴ为夹于湖相薄层灰岩中的鲕粒砾屑灰岩,为风暴水流冲越鲕滩,在滩后湖近滩一侧的风暴沉积;类型Ⅵ为湖相风暴岩,由冲刷面构造、薄层内碎屑灰岩及丘状交错层理的组合,顶部具晴天沉积。各种序列在垂向上叠置,构成向上变浅序列。风暴沉积的研究对于深化区域古地理及地层对比研究具有重要的理论和现实意义。