Carbonate cementation of some Pleistocene temperate marine sediments

Carbonate cementation of some carbonate and quartz sands in three raised beaches of temperate origins was investigated. The carbonate of the cements was found to have been derived from the dissolution of skeletal debris. The sandstones, so produced, now possess only low-magnesium calcite, but the original sediments, like adjacent modern beach and blown sands, probably contained low-magnesium calcite, aragonite and some high-magnesium calcite, all of skeletal origin. In meteoric water the dissolution has occurred of all carbonate within minute, tubulelike, volumes of sand. Concurrent deposition in adjacent volumes of sand of low-magnesium calcite formed cements that are irregularly nodular or uneven on a small scale. Aragonite within the minute nodules has been replaced paramorphically by low-magnesium calcite. Additional local carbonate cements were formed at later dates, around and within solution pipes.