Organic matter, putative nannobacteria and the formation of ooids and hardgrounds

Modern ooids from Joulters Cay, when baked at 500 °C, turn various shades of black depending upon the organic content. Mucus-rich laminae occur at quasi-regular intervals of a few micrometres within the cortex. When mucus is still present, it turns black; when it is absent, there is a gap. The cortex consists of two types of aragonite: (1) 'batons' of circular cross-section capped by a single 0·1-μm (100-nm) ball, which can be interpreted as a single nannobacteria cell that precipitated the baton; (2) elongate crystals made of multiple rows of minute balls of about 0·03 μm (30 nm), which may or may not have been small organisms in the size range of viruses. There are also some crystals that show no evidence of organic precipitation. Hardground cementation begins with the formation of a terminal mucus-rich ring on the ooid that bakes black and is crowded with 0·1-μm (100-nm) balls. Some ooids are then joined by a meniscus also made of mucus with aragonite crystals. The final, most abundant hardground cement forms a fur of inorganic aragonite crystals often shaped like plywood sheets, although some 'organic', elongate crystals composed of ≈0·03 μm (≈30 nm) balls are also found in the later cement. For a century, ooids have been known to be closely associated with organic matter; this paper goes further and proposes that the bulk of the ooid may be precipitated by nannobacterial processes. Hardground formation, in the beginning, may also be a microbiological process, but most cementation is accomplished inorganically.     

The lithostratigraphy of the English Chalk Rock

The Upper Turonian Chalk Rock occurs within a nodular unit within the otherwise generally soft, white chalk that dominates the English Upper Cretaceous. The nodular unit is condensed, and contains a number of hardgrounds that are designated here as the Chalk Rock Formation. The Chalk Rock contains some seven or eight hardgrounds, most of which are lithologically distinctive and can be traced over distances of up to 250 km. Nine beds within the Chalk Rock are named, comprising six hardgrounds and three marl seams. The lowermost widespread hardground appears to be more or less equivalent to the “Spurious Chalk Rock” of the south coast of England. In two areas the thickness of the Chalk Rock is greatly diminished. The most marked area, in west Wiltshire, is located close to the Palaeozoic Mendip Hills and indicates that the Mendip structure has influenced Turonian sedimentation. The other region of thinning is a platform-like area in the eastern Chiltern Hills WNW of London.     

The late cretaceous transgression in the SWAnglo-Paris Basin: Stratigraphy of the Craie de Villedieu Formation

The litho- and biostratigraphy of the Craie de Villedieu Formation (Coniacian-Santonian)of western France are described in detail. The formation is subdivided into three members each containing a number of lithologically distinct named hardgrounds and marker beds. These constitute an onlapping sequence that thins from > 15 m in the NE around Cangey and Villedieu-le-Château, to < 2 m in the SW around St Michel-sur-Loire, a distance of 70 km. Thickness variation is related to the interaction of differential subsidence with eustatic transgression. Comparison with the Chalk Rock Formation of southern England indicates that transgressive and regressive hardground suites may be differentiated on bed geometry and hardground surface characteristics. The Craie de Villedieu rests everywhere on a regional hardground that coincides with the Turonian/Coniacian boundary in expanded successions, but probably marks a significant hiatus. South-west of Tours, onlap results in Santonian strata resting disconformably on strata of Turonian age. The basal Craie de Villedieu contains a succession of three Coniacian ammonite faunas characterized by Peroniceras and Forresteria (Harleites) (oldest), Gauthiericeras margae (Schlüter), and Protexanites (youngest). Volviceramus ex gr. involutus (J. de C. Sowerby) occurs with the two uppermost ammonite assemblages. A Santonian ammonite fauna dominated by Placenticeras polyopsis (Dujardin) occurs with Texanites gallicus Collignon and common Cladoceramus in the middle of the formation. Cordiceramus ex gr. cordiformis (J. de C. Sowerby) is recorded with Santonian ammonites in the upper part of the formation. A correlation with the Micraster zones of chalk facies is suggested, based on the inoceramid stratigraphy. The record of T. gallicus in association with Cladoceramus affords the first direct evidence for the position of the base of the Santonian in the Anglo-Paris Basin.     

The genesis, mineralization, and stratigraphic significance of phosphatic/glauconitic condensed limestone unit in the Manavgat Basin, SW Turkey

A condensed hemipelagic limestone unit with glauconite and phosphate separates a drowned Late Burdigalian carbonate platform from overlying Langhian pelagic mudstones, marls, and calcarenitic tempestites within the Neogene Manavgat Basin of southwestern Anatolia, Turkey. The unit consists of coeval lenticular limestone bodies, between 1 cm and 15 m in thickness, ranging from 10 m to 3 km in lateral extent. The P2O5 content of this limestone ranges from 0.2 to 10% by weight and the iron-oxide, clay, and other metal-oxide contents of this unit substantially exceed those of the underlying and overlying rocks.This condensed stratigraphic unit was deposited on the southwesterly outer shelf portions of drowned horsts that directly faced upwelling currents. The unit displays three main facies: 1) glauconitic phosphate crusts associated with hardgrounds; 2) bedded glauconitic-phosphatic limestones; and 3) glauconitic-phosphatic limestones interbedded with resedimented limestones. Facies (1) forms the thinnest units whereas facies (3) is the thickest, since the thickness and spatial distribution of this facies are related to environmental contrasts caused by block faulting of the underlying carbonate platform.This lithostratigraphic unit of hemipelagic glauconite–phosphate deposition represents an interval of maximum flooding in tectonically active situations and depositional hiatus on submarine highs that separate the carbonate transgressive systems tract from the overlying terigenic tempestite highstand systems tract. This appears to be the sole condensed unit within the Miocene Manavgat Basin; and is here ascribed to a third-order (2.3) eustatic rise in sea level comprising the maximum flooding of the first-order cycle. This is also the time for early–Mid Miocene major changes in Mediterranean climate from tropical to temperate.