Bioerosion and carbonate mud production on high-latitude shelves

Low-latitude carbonate muds often are composed either of entire units of skeletons (e.g., algal muds) or of precipitates, whereas high-latitude carbonate muds are bioerosional or result from maceration. Bioerosion at high latitudes is most intense in the photic zone, particularly down to 25 m depth. Shelly substrata may be crushed, bitten, drilled, bored or scraped. Clionid sponges, endolithic algae, acmaeid gastropods and regular echinoids are the most significant agents. Clionids produce distinctive facetted carbonate silt chips when boring, which have been described from both high- and low-latitudes. Faecal pellets break down to yield mud-sized carbonate particles that are more irregular than those produced by maceration. Exhumed infaunal bivalves are often preferred to epifaunal organisms as substrata. Bioerosion occurs very rapidly; shells may be totally infested with boring algae in three months. A “moth-eaten” appearance therefore does not denote a relict grain. Reliable rates of fine sediment production are not yet available.

The mud fraction of northwest European shelf sediment generally contains 10–20% CaCO₃, though an inshore and offshore belt with higher values may be identified. Some Holocene supratidal mud-flats exceed 50% CaCO₃. Much of the shelf represents a modern-day equivalent of the “calcareous shale” facies common in the geological record. Instances of synsedimentary cementation are not uncommon, particularly in association with heavily burrowed muds.