SYN-SEDIMENTARY MARINE LITHIFICATION OF MIDDLE JURASSIC LIMESTONES IN THE PARIS BASIN

SUMMARY
Bored surfaces in Middle Jurassic limestones in northeastern France indicate syn-sedimentary lithification. The sedimentary structures and textures, and age relationships between the bored carbonates and the argillaceous sediments above them suggest that the lithification has occurred in both submarine and intertidal environments. The diagenetic fabrics which have resulted from this early marine lithification include three types of calcite druse, echinoderm overgrowths, and microcrystalline cements. Most of these cements are comparable with those forming today in inter- and subtidal environments of the Persian Gulf.
The localization of bored surfaces ("hard grounds") at the tops of regressive carbonate sequences is interpreted as being the result of slow carbonate sedimentation and lithification of the Jurassic sea-floor prior to the onset of argillaceous colder, or deeper-water sedimentation.     

Redbed‐associated sabkhas and tidal flats at Shark Bay,Western Australia: Their significance for genetic models of stratiform Cu‐(Pb‐Zn) deposits

Interaction of metalliferous continental brines with biogenic sulphide is the basis of some syngenetic and early diagenetic models for the formation of Cu‐(Pb‐Zn) sulphides during a depositional cycle of carbonates in restricted marine environments. A variation of these models (an ‘evaporative concentration‐lateral groundwater flow’ model) is proposed, using hydrological, geochemical and biological data from low metal, but otherwise pertinent redbed‐associated, sabkha, tidal flat and subtidal environments at Nilemah Embayment, in Hamelin Pool (Shark Bay, Western Australia).

The model is constrained by: (i) the short time available for ore accumulation during a single depositional cycle; (ii) limitation of adequate rates of bacterial sulphate reduction for the formation of an ore deposit to near‐surface sediments; (iii) restriction of the most favourable ore‐forming sites to the intertidal zone and the littoral shelf; (iv) coincidence in these sites of laterally‐flowing marine/meteoric groundwater brine, and mosaics of in situ cyanobacterial mats and shallow erosional depressions containing detrital organic matter eroded from the mats. Under these conditions the metalliferous fluid would have to contain about 1000 ppm Cu and flow for 1000 years at a rate of 5 m/a through the intertidal/littoral shelf environment to produce an ore deposit.

Critical features of a model that could generate this combination of very high metal concentrations and flow rates are: (i) a highly permeable unconfined aquifer system comprising alluvial fans at the base of basaltic mountain ranges and continental redbeds beneath a broad coastal plain; (ii) mobilization, concentration and transport of the metals in this aquifer to intertidal/littoral shelf sites of ore deposition; (iii) effective concentration processes in the aquifer, involving evaporation and reflux of brines in groundwater discharge areas on the coastal plain and evaporation in marine‐continental and marine sabkhas bordering the sites of deposition; (iv) rapid lateral groundwater flow of the concentrated metalliferous brines under a strong seawards‐directed hydraulic gradient; and (v) discharge of the metalliferous brines into or through topographic depressions generated by erosion and shoaling in the peritidal and littoral shelf environments.

The model hydrodynamic processes and their magnitude are within the range observed in modern environments but they are most likely to be effective in coarse‐grained, topographically irregular carbonate sabkhas and tidal flats, which usually form under high‐energy conditions. Even under these conditions, the individual ore‐forming processes must combine in an optimum manner before the highly demanding metal concentrations and flow rates required for ore formation in a single marine depositional cycle can be met.     

Diagenetically altered sabkha-type Pleistocene dolomite from the Arabian Gulf

Diagenetically altered Pleistocene dolomite occurs in the shallow subsurface of the Arabian Gulf, offshore of Al Jubayl, Saudi Arabia. This dolomite accumulated in relatively shallow marine to sabkha depositional environments. In contrast with the thin extent of most other Quaternary sabkha and sabkha-related dolomite deposits, these deposits comprise a thick (>56 m) accumulation. Additionally, this Pleistocene dolomite displays a high degree of ordering and has a more nearly ideal stoichiometric composition than the dolomite from the depositionally and diagenetically analogous Abu Dhabi sabkha complex. The Pleistocene dolomite also has lower δ¹³ and δ¹⁸O values than the modern Abu Dhabi sabkha dolomite, and higher values than those commonly reported for analogous dolomite from the ancient rock record. The low δ¹⁸O values, in conjunction with the geological setting, indicate that the diagenetic waters were meteoric or mixed meteoric and marine in composition. Thus, the degree of ordering, stoichiometric and stable isotopic values indicate that this dolomite has undergone diagenetic alteration relative to its presumed Holocene precursor.     

Diagenetic model of carbonate rocks of Guri Member of Mishan Formation (Lower to Middle Miocene) SE Zagros basin,Iran

In order to understand the post-depositional history of carbonate rocks of Guri Member (Lower to Middle Miocene), three stratigraphic sections were selected in north Bandar-Abbas in southeast of Iran. Sampling was carried out, analyzed for selective parameters such as oxygen and carbon isotopic compositions (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) and interpreted in the present study. We recognized several diagenetic processes including micritization, cementation, neomorphism, compaction, dissolution, silicification, dolomitization, fracturing and vein filling. Some of the diagenetic processes occurred at different conditions, so in order to achieve precise interpretation, samples from different carbonate components such as, micrite, fracture cement, solution pore cement, intergranular cement, and some biotic allochems were analyzed. In this study micrite samples were subdivided into two groups including micro-spary and micrite. They were recognized under Cathodoluminescence microscope. In addition, micrite samples were classified into five groups based on their depositional environments: supratidal, lagoon, coral bar, open sea, and open basin. There were minor changes in stable isotope ratios based on the sedimentary environments, stratigraphy successions, and micro-spary or micrite properties. In this study, similar calcite cements in petrography studies were differentiated by stable isotope data. Those calcite cements have formed in different diagenetic environments such as meteoric and burial cements. Paragenetic sequence of carbonate rocks were interpreted by integration of petrographic and isotopic studies. We have reconstructed diagenetic models of Guri Member into four stages including marine, meteoric, burial, and uplifting.     

Paleoecology and paleoenvironment of the Middle–Upper Jurassic sedimentary succession,central Saudi Arabia

Four Middle–Upper Jurassic sections from central Saudi Arabia have been investigated to evaluate microfacies types and macro-invertebrate paleocommunities and to interpret their paleoecology and paleoenvironments. The studied Jurassic successions are part of the Middle–Upper Callovian Tuwaiq Mountain Limestone and the Middle–Upper Oxfordian Hanifa Formation. Three main facies were recorded, including mud-supported microfacies, grain-supported microfacies and boundstones. A data matrix comprising 48 macrobenthic species in 35 samples collected from four sections were grouped into fifteen assemblages and one poorly fossiliferous interval by means of a Q-mode cluster analysis. The recorded macrofaunal assemblages have been subdivided into low-stress and high-stress on the basis of hydrodynamic conditions, substrate type, nutrient supply and hypoxia. The low-stress assemblages occur in (a) high-energy paleoenvironments with firm substrates; (b) high-energy shoals with unstable substrates of low cohesion and in (c) low-energy open marine environments with soft-substrates. The moderate- to high-stress assemblages occur in (a) oligotrophic environments with reduced terrigenous input in shelf lagoonal or in restricted inner ramp settings; (b) low-energy, soft substrate environments with hypoxia below the sediment–water interface; and, in (c) high-energy shoals and shelf lagoonal environments. The temporal distribution patterns of epifaunal and infaunal bivalve taxa are controlled by variations in water energy, substrate characteristics and productivity level. The reported litho- and biofacies confirmed that the Callovian Tuwaiq Mountain Limestone and the Oxfordian Hanifa Formation were deposited across wide spectrum of depositional environments, ranging from restricted lagoon to moderately deeper open marine basin, and providing the perfect conditions for macrofossils.     

Controls of facies and sediment composition on the diagenetic pathway of shallow-water Heterozoan carbonates: the Oligocene of the Maltese Islands

Relatively few studies have so far addressed diagenetic processes in Heterozoan carbonates and the role that sediment composition and depositional facies exert over diagenetic pathways. This paper presents a study of Oligocene shallow-water, Heterozoan carbonates from the Maltese Islands. We investigate stratigraphic distribution, abundance and timing of diagenetic features and their relationship to sediment composition and depositional facies. The studied carbonate rocks comprise rud- to packstones of the Heterozoan association predominantly containing coralline red algae, bryozoans, echinoids and benthic foraminifers. XRD analyses show that all high-Mg calcite has been transformed to low-Mg calcite and that no aragonite is preserved. Diagenetic processes include dissolution of aragonitic biota, neomorphism of high-Mg calcitic biota to low-Mg calcite and cementation by fibrous, bladed, epitaxial and blocky cements. Stable isotopes on bulk rock integrated with petrographic data suggest that the study interval was not exposed to significant meteoric diagenesis. We interpret early cementation to have taken place in the marine and marine burial environment. The distribution and abundance of early diagenetic features, determining the diagenetic pathway, can be related to the primary sediment composition and depositional texture. Sorting and micrite content are important controls over the abundance of diagenetic features.     

Sedimentary facies and diagenetic features of the Early Cretaceous Fahliyan Formation in the Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt,Iran

The Early Cretaceous Fahliyan Formation (middle part of the Khami Group), is one of the important reservoir rocks in the Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt. The Zagros Fold-Thrust Belt is located on the boundary between the Arabian and Eurasian lithospheric plates and formed from collision between Eurasia and advancing Arabia during the Cenozoic. In this study area, the Fahliyan Formation with a thickness of 325 m, consists of carbonate rocks (limestone and dolomite). This formation overlies the Late Jurassic Surmeh Formation unconformably and underlies the Early Cretaceous Gadvan Formation conformably at Gadvan Anticline. The formation was investigated by a detailed petrographic analysis to clarify the depositional facies, sedimentary environments and diagenetic features in the Gadvan Anticline. Petrographic studies led to recognition of the 12 microfacies that were deposited in four facies belts: tidal flat, lagoon, and shoal in inner ramp and shallow open marine in mid-ramp environments. The absence of turbidite deposits, reefal facies, and gradual facies changes show that the Fahliyan Formation was deposited on a carbonate ramp. Calcareous algae and benthic foraminifera are abundant in the shallow marine carbonates of the Fahliyan Formation. The diagenetic settings favored productioning a variety of features which include cements from early to late marine cements, micritization, dolomitization, compaction features, dissolution fabric, and pores. The diagenetic sequence can be roughly divided into three stages: (1) eugenic stage: marine diagenetic environment, (2) mesogenic stage: burial environment, and (3) telogenic stage: meteoric diagenetic environment.     

Depositional theme of a marginal marine evaporite

We have reconstructed the depositional environment of the gypsum-carbonate-shale sequence that comprises the Upper Permian Bellerophon Formation of the southeastern Alps in northern Italy. This formation, which reaches a maximum thickness of 600 m, is roughly divided into two facies: (a) a lower dolomite-gypsum facies, and (2) an upper micritic-skeletal limestone facies. It directly overlies, with transitional contact, a thick red-bed sequence (alluvial fanglomerates, fluviatile sandstones and flood-plain siltstones) and is sharply overlain by Lower Triassic calcarenites (oolites, grapestones, pellets, flat-pebble conglomerates). The lower evaporite facies rocks are found in well-defined cycles, each of which, from bottom to top, consists of (A) thin-bedded, worm-burrowed, vuggy ‘earthy’ micritic dolomite, (B) massive to poorly laminated dark grey to black sandy dolomite carrying isolated gypsum nodules, (C) layered (thin-bedded) nodular gypsum (commonly with ‘enterolithic’ folds) with fragmented partings of dolomite, and (D) massive ‘chicken-wire’ nodular gypsum. At Passo di Valles, just east of Predazzo, and 50 km from the basin margin, we measured forty-six consecutive complete cycles, with an average thickness of 3 m per cycle. We interpret the cyclic sequence as having been deposited in a prograding shallow lagoon—sabkha complex. The worm-burrowed ‘earthy’ dolomite mud accumulated in a shallow hypersaline subtidal lagoon. The black sandy dolomite was an ‘intertidal’ sand-flat devoid of algal mats and constantly churned by burrowers (likely crustaceans). As the shoreline prograded lagoonward evaporative concentration of the groundwater induced diagenetic growth of anhydrite nodules (now gypsum) within the porous sandy dolomite. The layered nodular and ‘chicken-wire’ gypsum of the cycle cap is an extreme product of such displacive intra-sediment growth of anhydrite (now gypsum) above the water table of a completely exposed sabkha, such as is found in the Persian Gulf today. We have observed the same cyclically arranged lithologies in two other evaporite sequences in Italy: the Triassic Raibl Formation of the Southern Alps and the Upper Triassic Burano Formation of the central Apennines. We suggest that this mode of deposition is likely a very common one for at least the early stages of marine evaporite accumulation.     

Primary dolomite in the Late Triassic Travenanzes Formation,Dolomites, Northern Italy: Facies control and possible bacterial influence

In the late Carnian (Late Triassic), a carbonate‐clastic depositional system including a distal alluvial plain, flood basin and sabkha, tidal flat and shallow carbonate lagoon was established in the Dolomites (Northern Italy). The flood basin was a muddy supratidal environment where marine carbonates and continental siliciclastics interfingered. A dolomite phase made of sub‐micrometre euhedral crystals with a mosaic microstructure of nanometre‐scale domains was identified in stromatolitic laminae of the flood basin embedded in clay. This dolomite is interpreted here as primary and has a nearly stoichiometric composition, as opposed to younger early diagenetic (not primary) dolomite phases, which are commonly calcian. This primary dolomite was shielded from later diagenetic transformation by the clay. The stable isotopic composition of dolomite was analyzed along a depositional transect. The δ¹³C values range between ca ?6‰ and +4‰, with the most ¹³C‐depleted values in dolomites of the distal alluvial plain and flood basin, and the most ¹³C‐enriched in dolomites of the tidal flat and lagoon. Uniform δ¹⁸O values ranging between 0‰ and +3‰ were found in all sedimentary facies. It is hypothesized that the primary dolomite with mosaic microstructure nucleated on extracellular polymeric substances secreted by sulphate reducing bacteria. A multi‐step process involving sabkha and reflux dolomitization led to partial replacement and overgrowth of the primary dolomite, but replacement and overgrowth were facies‐dependent. Dolomites of the landward, clay‐rich portion of the sedimentary system were only moderately overgrown during late dolomitization steps, and partly retain an isotopic signature consistent with bacterial sulphate reduction with δ¹³C as low as ?6‰. In contrast, dolomites of the marine, clay‐free part of the system were probably transformed through sabkha and reflux diagenetic processes into calcian varieties, and exhibit δ¹³C values of ca +3‰. Major shifts of δ¹³C values strictly follow the lateral migration of facies and thus mark transgressions and regressions.     

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.     

Closed-system marine burial diagenesis: isotopic data from the Austin Chalk and its components

ABSTRACT
The carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of the Austin Chalk was examined in cores representing a range of depths from surface to 3000 m in order to document the effects of burial diagenesis on carbon and oxygen isotopic composition. Low magnesium calcite oysters were separated (from 500 um wide areas) and analysed to estimate the starting composition of Cretaceous marine sediment. These gave an average value of -2·5%δ¹⁸O; + 2·0%δ¹³C (PDB). The compositions of micrite, intergranular cement, and fracture cement were analysed, and their deviation from this original marine composition was evaluated to document the progression of chalk diagenesis. Interestingly, micrite exhibits only minor variation in composition from marine values despite present burial depth ranges in excess of 3000 m. The average deviation from δ18O marine is less than 1·5. Furthermore, intergranular cement and particularly fracture cements, which occur only in the deepest cores and which clearly post-date micrite lithification, are generally indistinguishable from micrite in composition. Isotopic compositions exhibit no correlation with depth of burial despite abundant petrographic evidence of deep burial diagenesis. This uniformity in composition is interpreted as reflecting a closed, rock-dominated diagenetic system in which the compositions of precipitated carbonate cements were controlled by the composition of dissolving carbonates during lithification. As such, the composition of burial cement is not representative of the rock-water temperatures during precipitation.
Thus, in the context of isotopic analyses from other carbonate systems, unless the degree of openness of the diagenetic system is known, oxygen isotopic signatures of cements cannot directly be converted to the rock-water temperatures at which they were precipitated unless the composition of the ambient porefluid is also known.     

Early diagenetic phosphate cements in the Albian condensed glauconitic limestone of the Tatra Mountains, Western Carpathians

Early diagenetic phosphate cements are described from the Albian condensed glauconitic limestone of the Tatra Mountains, Western Carpathians with regard to their macro- and micromorphology, distribution, classification, and genesis. The cements occur within stratigraphically condensed semi-pelagic foramini-feral-glauconitic layers and are associated with mature hardgrounds within the Tatra Albian limestone. Phosphate cement fabrics consist of crypto- to microcrystalline carbonate-fluorapatite, and they occur as: (i) rim envelopes, (ii) infillings of intraparticle porosity, (iii) rim cement, (iv) multiple rim cement, (v) palisade fabric and (vi) cluster cement. Micromorphological variability of the cement fabrics results from varying texture of the cemented sediment, the nature of original porosity, as well as from presence of associated microbial fabrics. The microbial fabrics are interpreted as fossilized coccoid cyanobacteria. Phosphate cementation developed under peculiar early diagenetic conditions within semi-closed microenvironments rich in organic matter in the marine phreatic environment. The cementation contributed to the formation of phosphatic fossils and hardgrounds. The accretion of the cements was due to concentration of biologically uptaken phosphorus near the sediment/water interface, enrichment of pore fluids with respect to phosphate, and its precipitation within restricted microenvironments. Phosphate cementation post-dated seafloor formation of pelletal glauconite but predated partial decomposition of organic matter as well as dissolution or neomorphism of aragonite and high-Mg calcite. Phosphate cementation occurred on a carbonate platform following the submersion of Urgonian reefal build-ups. Episodes of phosphate cementation were repeated during the sedimentation of the Tatra Albian limestone as a response to rapid relative sea-level rises and increased influence of nutrient-rich Tethyan waters.     

Anatomy of an Upper Triassic continental to marginal‐marine system: the mixed siliciclastic–carbonate Travenanzes Formation (Dolomites,Northern Italy)

The Travenanzes Formation is a terrestrial to shallow‐marine, siliciclastic–carbonate succession (200 m thick) that was deposited in the eastern Southern Alps during the Late Triassic. Sedimentary environments and depositional architecture have been reconstructed in the Dolomites, along a 60 km south–north transect. Facies alternations in the field suggest interfingering between alluvial‐plain, flood‐basin and shallow‐lagoon deposits, with a transition from terrestrial to marine facies belts from south to north. The terrestrial portion of the Travenanzes Formation consists of a dryland river system, characterized by multicoloured floodplain mudstones with scattered conglomeratic fluvial channels, merging downslope into small ephemeral streams and sheet‐flood sandstones, and losing their entire discharge subaerially before the shoreline. Calcic and vertic palaeosols indicate an arid/semi‐arid climate with strong seasonality and intermittent discharge. The terrestrial/marine transition shows a coastal mudflat, the flood basin, which is usually exposed, but at times is inundated by both major river floods and sea‐water storm surges. Locally coastal sabkha deposits occur. The marine portion of the Travenanzes Formation comprises carbonate tidal‐flat and shallow‐lagoon deposits, characterized by metre‐scale shallowing‐upward peritidal cycles and subordinate intercalations of dark clays from the continent. The depositional architecture of the Travenanzes Formation suggests an overall transgressive pattern organized in three carbonate–siliciclastic cycles, corresponding to transgressive–regressive sequences with internal higher‐frequency sedimentary cycles. The metre‐scale sedimentary cyclicity of the Travenanzes Formation continues without a break in sedimentation into the overlying Dolomia Principale. The onset of the Dolomia Principale epicontinental platform is marked by the exhaustion of continental sediment supply.     

Calcite cementation during bacterial manganese, iron and sulphate reduction in Jurassic shallow marine carbonates

Faunally restricted argillaceous wackestones from the Middle Jurassic of eastern England contain evidence of early diagenetic skeletal aragonite dissolution and stabilization of the carbonate matrix, closely followed by precipitation of zoned calcite cements, and precipitation of pyrite. Distinctive cathodoluminescence and trace element trends through the authigenic calcites, their negative δ¹³C compositions and the location of pyrite in the paragenetic sequence indicate that calcite precipitation took place during sequential bacterial Mn, Fe and sulphate reduction. Calcite δ¹⁸O values are compatible with cementation from essentially marine pore fluids, although compositions vary owing to minor contamination with ¹⁸O-depleted ‘late’cements. Mg and Sr concentrations in the calcites are lower than those in recent marine calcite cements. This may be a result of kinetic factors associated with the shallow burial cementation microenvironments. Bicarbonate for sustained precipitation of the authigenic calcites was derived largely from aragonite remobilization, augmented by that produced through anaerobic organic matter oxidation in the metal and sulphate reduction environments. Aragonite dissolution is thought to have been induced by acidity generated during aerobic bacterial oxidation of organic matter. Distinction of post-oxic metal reduction and anoxic sulphate reduction diagenetic environments in modern carbonate sediments is uncommon outside pelagic settings, and early bacterially mediated diagenesis in modern platform carbonates is associated with extensive carbonate dissolution. High detrital Fe contents of the Jurassic sediments, and their restricted depositional environment, were probably the critical factors promoting early cementation. These precipitates constitute a unique example of calcite authigenesis in shallow water limestones during bacterial Mn and Fe reduction.     

Early diagenesis and its relationship to depositional environment and relative sea-level fluctuations (Upper Cretaceous Marshybank Formation, Alberta and British Columbia)

Early diagenesis of the Upper Cretaceous (late Coniacian to early Santonian) Marshybank Formation was controlled by depositional environment (composition of depositional water, Fe and organic content of the sediment, sedimentation rate, proximity to the shoreline) and influx of meteoric water related to relative sea-level fall. Five depositional environments, each characterized by a distinct early diagenetic mineral assemblage, have been recognized. Offshore shelf sediments that were deposited in a dysaerobic environment are characterized by abundant framboidal pyrite and rare septarian concretions, composed of ‘early’ calcite and siderite. Intense sulphate reduction, promoted by the dysaerobic depositional water, was the primary influence on early diagenesis. Offshore shelf sediments deposited under aerobic conditions are characterized by abundant concretions, composed of two generations of siderite (S1 and S2). In this environment, methanogenesis, rather than sulphate reduction, was more important. Early diagenesis of the inner shelf sands was generally limited. However, in sands deposited proximal to the shoreline, mixing of marine and meteoric waters promoted crystallization of Fe-rich chlorite and siderite. The shoreface was characterized by dissolution of detrital minerals in the upper portion, and precipitation of kaolinite or illite/smectite in the lower portion. In the coastal plain environment, brackish water and early reducing conditions resulted in formation of abundant euhedral pyrite. Ankerite, rather than siderite, is the typical early diagenetic carbonate. The δ¹⁸O values of the earliest cements (i.e. ‘early’ calcite, siderite S1, inner shelf siderite) indicate crystallization from a low-¹⁸O, marine-derived porewater. Assuming crystallization at 25°C, a δ¹⁸O value of about ?7‰ (SMOW) can be estimated for the seaway during Marshybank Formation time. Similar calculations for the overlying Dowling Member (Puskwaskau Formation) suggest that the δ¹⁸O value of the seaway increased to about ?4% (SMOW), consistent with its transgressive nature. Very low δ¹⁸O values are exhibited by siderite S2. These results indicate crystallization during intermediate diagenesis (≥60°C) from meteoric water (≥? 15‰ SMOW) that entered the Marshybank Formation during sea-level lowstand.     

Contrasting diagenesis of two Carboniferous Oolites from South Wales: a tale of climatic influence

Two oolites in the Dinantian (Mississippian/Lower Carboniferous) of Glamorgan, SW Britain, were deposited in similar depositional environments but have contrasting diagenetic histories. The Brofiscin and Gully Oolites occur in the upper parts of shallowing-upward sequences, formed through strandplain progradation and sand shoal and barrier growth upon a southward-dipping carbonate ramp. The Brofiscin Oolite is characterized by a first-generation cement of equant calcite spar, preferentially located at grain-contacts and forming non-isopachous fringes around grains, interpreted as meteoric vadose and phreatic in origin. Isopachous fibrous calcite fringes of marine origin are rather rare and occur only at a few horizons. Burial compaction was not important and porosity was occluded by poikilotopic calcite spar. Fitted grain-grain contacts locally occur and could be the result of near-surface vadose dissolution-compaction. Syntaxial overgrowths on echinoderm debris are common. Pre-compaction overgrowths are cloudy (inclusion-rich) and probably of meteoric origin, and post-compaction overgrowths are inclusion-free. By contrast, the Gully Oolite has little first-generation cement. However, marine fibrous calcite is common in oolitic intraclasts, as isopachous fringes of acicular calcite crystals closely associated with peloidal internal sediment; and early equant, drusy calcite spar occurs in the uppermost part of the Gully, beneath a prominent palaeokarst where pedogenic cements also occur. The major feature of Gully diagenesis is burial compaction, resulting in extensive grain-grain dissolution and microstylolitic grain contacts, and post-compaction poikilotopic spar occluded remaining porosity. The Brofiscin Oolite is pervasively dolomitized up-dip but the Gully Oolite for the most part only contains scattered pre-compaction dolomite rhombs and late veins of baroque dolomite, with less pervasive dolomitization. The difference in diagenetic style of the two Dinantian oolites is attributed to prevailing climate. The paucity of early meteoric cements in the Gully is a result of an arid climate, and this is supported by the nature of the capping palaeokarst. The abundant meteoric cements in the Brofiscin reflect a more humid climate, and effective meteoric recharge also resulted in up-dip pervasive mixing-zone dolomitization. The style of early diagenesis in these two oolites exerted a major control on the later burial diagenesis: in the Brofiscin, the early cements inhibited grain-grain dissolution and pressure solution, while these processes operated extensively in the Gully Oolite. Thus, prevailing climate can influence a limestone's diagenetic history from near-surface through into deep burial.     

Carbonate sediments in a cool‐water macroalgal environment,Kaikoura, New Zealand

Brown and red, and to a lesser extent green, macroalgae are a hallmark of intertidal rocky coasts and adjacent shallow marine environments swept by stormy seas in middle and high latitudes. Such environments produce carbonate sediment but the sediment factory is neither well‐documented nor well‐understood. This study documents the general marine biology and sedimentology of rocky coastal substrates around Kaikoura Peninsula, a setting that typifies many similar cold‐temperate environments with turbid waters and somewhat elevated trophic resources along the eastern coast of South Island, New Zealand. The macroalgal community extends down to 20 m and generally comprises a phaeophyte canopy beneath which is a prolific rhodophyte community and numerous sessile calcareous invertebrates on rocky substrates. The modern biota is strongly depth zoned and controlled by bottom morphology, variable light penetration, hydrodynamic energy and substrate. Most calcareous organisms live on the lithic substrates beneath macroalgae or on algal holdfasts with only a few growing on macroalgal fronds. A live biota of coralline red algae [geniculate, encrusting and nodular (rhodoliths)], bryozoans, barnacles and molluscs (gastropods and epifaunal bivalves), together with spirorbid and serpulid worms, small benthonic foraminifera and echinoids produce sediments that are mixed with terrigenous clastic particles in this overall siliciclastic depositional system. The resultant sediments within macroalgal rocky substrates at Kaikoura contain bioclasts typified by molluscs, corallines and rhodoliths, barnacles and other calcareous invertebrates. In the geological record, however, the occurrence of macroalgal produced sediments is restricted to unconformity‐related early transgressive systems tract stratigraphic intervals and temporally constrained to a Cenozoic age owing to the timing of the evolution of large brown macroalgae.     

Depositional environments of Upper Miocene (Messinian) evaporite deposits of the Sicilian Basin*

In Sicily, Messinian evaporitic sedimentary deposits are developed under a wide variety of hypersaline conditions and in environments ranging from continental margin (subaerial), to basin-margin supratidal, to intertidal, to subtidal and out into the hypersaline basin proper. The actual water depth at the time of deposition is indeterminate; however, relative terms such as ‘wave base’ and ‘photic zone’ are utilized. The inter-fingering relationships of specific evaporitic facies having clear and recognizable physical characteristics are presented. These include sub-aerial deposits of nodular calcium sulphate formed displacively within clastic sediments; gypsiferous rudites, arenites and arenitic marls, all of which are reworked sediments and are mixed in varying degrees with other clastic materials (subaerial, supratidal, and intertidal to deep basinal deposits). Laminated calcium sulphate alternating with very thin carbonate interlaminae and having two different aspects; one being even and continuous and the other of a wavy, irregular appearance (subtidal, intertidal, and supratidal deposits). Nodular calcium sulphate beds, usually associated with wavy, irregular laminated beds (supratidal, sabkha deposits); very coarsely crystalline gypsum beds (selenite), associated with more even, laminated beds (subaqueous, intertidal to subtidal deposits); wavy anastomozing gypsum beds, composed of very fine, often broken crystals (subaqueous, current-swept deposits); halite having hopper and chevron structures (supratidal to intertidal); and halite, potash salts, etc. having continuous laminated structure (subaqueous, possibly basinal). Evidence for diagenetic changes is observed in the calcium sulphate deposits which apparently formed by tectonic stress and also by migrating hypersaline waters. These observations suggest that the common, massive form of alabastrine gypsum (or anhydrite, in the subsurface) may not always be ascribed to original depositional features, to syndiagenesis or to early diagenesis but may be the result of late diagenesis.     

Environmental and sequence stratigraphic implications of anhydrite textures: A case from the Lower Triassic of the Central Persian Gulf

The Lower Triassic Kangan Formation in the Persian Gulf (South Pars Gas Field) and its adjacent areas are composed of carbonate–evaporite sequences. These sediments were deposited in a shallow marine homoclinal ramp. Study of the anhydrite-bearing intervals shows various structures and textures. The anhydrite structures are mainly bedded, massive, chicken-wire and nodular type and the main textures are felted, sparse crystal, needle shape, lath shape, equant and fibrous. Pervasive and poikilotopic cement together with replacement and porphyroblastic gypsum are accounted as the most common diagenetic features in anhydrite. Evaluation of anhydrite occurrences and features support both primary and secondary formations. The nodular to chicken-wire anhydrite formed under synsedimentary sabkha conditions, whereas anhydrite cements occurred during the late stages of diagenesis (shallow burial stage). Massive to bedded anhydrite could have been formed under subaqueous conditions or originated by coalescing and continued growth of anhydrite nodules in the sabkha zone. Anhydrite fabrics impose a significant control on the reservoir quality of the Kangan carbonates at the South Pars Gas Field. Thick massive and bedded anhydrite could have been formed as an intraformational seals and anhydrite cements occluded pore spaces and reduced the poroperm values. The sequence stratigraphic analysis revealed two depositional sequences in the studied intervals, which are composed of TST and HST. Investigation of anhydrite throughout depositional sequences indicates a change in the content and style of anhydrite texture. Anhydrite content (volume) decreases upward through transgressive system tract (sea-level rise) whereas, it enhances during highstand system tract (sea-level fall). Pervasive and poikilotopic anhydrite cements together with replacement by anhydrite are prevalent features during transgressive and early highstand system tract. At the late HST, with a progradational stacking pattern, anhydrite value increases and felted, radial, equant, crystalline and mosaic texture are the most common anhydrite fabrics. Sequence boundaries that indicate maximum sea level fall and exposure of successions are marked by the broad anhydrite deposits with massive to bedded and chicken-wire structures and various textures that located in late HST package. There is an unambiguous relationship between the microfacies associations, the evaporite textures, and the sea-level fluctuations. This relationship could lead to a predictable pattern that can be of use as a general guide for the sequence stratigraphic interpretations in the area.