Sea‐level rise,depth‐dependent carbonate sedimentation and the paradox of drowned platforms

A mathematical model of carbonate platform evolution is presented in which depth‐dependent carbonate growth rates determine platform‐top accumulation patterns in response to rising relative sea‐level. This model predicts that carbonate platform evolution is controlled primarily by the water depth and sediment accumulation rate conditions at the onset of relative sea‐level rise. The long‐standing ‘paradox of a drowned platform’ arose from the observation that maximum growth rate potentials of healthy platforms are faster than those of relative sea‐level rise. The model presented here demonstrates that a carbonate platform could be drowned during a constant relative sea‐level rise whose rate remains less than the maximum carbonate production potential. This scenario does not require environmental changes, such as increases in nutrient supply or siliciclastic sedimentation, to have taken place. A rate of relative sea‐level rise that is higher than the carbonate accumulation rate at the initial water depth is the only necessary condition to cause continuous negative feedbacks to the sediment accumulation rates. Under these conditions, the top of the carbonate platform gradually deepens until it is below the active photic zone and drowns despite the strong maximum growth potential of the carbonate production factory. This result effectively resolves the paradox of a drowned carbonate platform. Test modelling runs conducted with 2·5 m and 15 m initial sea water depths at bracketed rates of relative sea‐level rise have determined how fast the system catches up and maintains the ‘keep‐up’ phase. This is the measure of time necessary for the basin to respond fully to external forcing mechanisms. The duration of the ‘catch‐up’ phase of platform response (termed ‘carbonate response time’) scales with the initial sea water depth and the platform‐top aggradation rate. The catch‐up duration can be significantly elongated with an increase in the rate of relative sea‐level rise. The transition from the catch‐up to the keep‐up phases can also be delayed by a time interval associated with ecological re‐establishment after platform flooding. The carbonate model here employs a logistical equation to model the colonization of carbonate‐producing marine organisms and captures the initial time interval for full ecological re‐establishment. This mechanism prevents the full extent of carbonate production to be achieved at the incipient stage of relative sea‐level rise. The increase in delay time due to the carbonate response time and self‐organized processes associated with biological colonization increase the chances for platform drowning due to deepening of water depth (> ca 10 m). Furthermore this implies a greater likelihood for an autogenic origin for high‐frequency cyclic strata than has been estimated previously.     

A DISCUSSION ON SEISMIC BINARY GAIN SWITCHING AMPLIFIERS *

Geophysical field equipment has undergone rapid changes in the past decade; from simple AGC amplifiers and galvo cameras to binary gain switching amplifiers and digital recorders, all in an attempt to keep pace with the new geophysical interpretive methods developed, and the growing acceptance of the terminology, methods, and philosophy of communication theory. The additional tools of the digital recorder and digital computer make it possible to utilize these new techniques in geophysical processing. Accomplishing these new techniques demands severe requirements on the digital field recording process in handling the decreasing energy return from the seismometer, and to fully realize the capabilities of digital techniques in reducing data. Simple automatic gain control may be used. However, in the more sophisticated interpretive methods, such as autoregression and deconvolution, it is necessary to reconstruct the actual energy levels in the computer. Recording the control signal used in master AGC or programmed gain control may prove satisfactory; however the accuracy of control versus gain is limited to I% for such analog instrumentation. To utilize the computer to its fullest extent, and to accurately perform these new techniques, requires an accuracy of I% or better. This accuracy is obtainable by using a step gain control where the gain is increased by fixed steps in which each step represents a gain in amplification by a constant factor. The accuracy in this case can be made dependent only on the tolerance of resistors used as attenuators or feedback elements. Preferably the constant factor of gain steps should be a number easily handled by the computer. By using 6 db steps it becomes a simple matter to shift binary numbers, such as multiplying or dividing by 10 in the decimal system. The requirements or parameters for such an amplifier system, and the elements of the amplifier necessary to achieve these requirements are presented.     

Leucogranites from the Eastern Part of the South Mountain Batholith, Nova Scotia

The South Mountain Batholith is a peraluminous granitic complexranging in composition from biotite granodiorite to muscovite-topaz‘leucogranite’. Leucogranitic rocks (with generally<2% biotite) form a minor part ({small tilde}1•5%) ofthe batholith, and are of two types: (1) ‘associated leucogranites’occurring as relatively small zones in fine-grained leucomonzogranites;and (2) ‘independent leucogranites’ forming generallylarger bodies having no particular spatial association withother rock types. Mean chemical compositions of these two typesof leucogranite are as follows (associated, independent): Na₂O(3•46,3•83),K₂O(4•40,4•09),andP₂O₅ (0•26, 0•45)in wt.%;Li(149, 281), F(1199, 2712),Rb (393, 725), U (7•4, 4•4), Nb (12•8, 23•4),Ta (2•9, 7•1), and Zr (52, 31) in ppm. Rare earthelements also differ between the two types (associated, independent):REE (34•1 ppm, 19•9 ppm); and in the degree and variabilityof heavy REE fractionation (Gd_N/Yb_N=4•62•2, 2•00•7).In addition, associated leucogranite has REE compositions similarto those of its host rocks. Mean ¹⁸O values (associated +ll•21•2,independent +ll•40•5; relative to SMOW) are comparablewith the mean for the entire South Mountain Batholith (+l0•80•7).Radiometric dating (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar on muscovite) shows that bothtypes of leucogranite have identical ages of 3723 Ma, equivalentto ages determined by other techniques for granodiorite andmonzogranite samples elsewhere in the batholith. Field relationsand geochemistry suggest that the associated leucogranite resultsfrom an open-system interaction between a fluid and its hostleucomonzogranite, whereas the independent leucogranite bodiesare discrete intrusions of highly fractionated melts that underwentclosed-system, late-magmatic to post-magmatic fluid alteration.Where mineralized, the associated leucogranite characteristicallyhosts greisen-type or disseminated polymetallic mineralization,whereas the independent leucogranite hosts pegmatitic or disseminatedpolymetallic mineralization.