High-Energy Events Versus Global Change Controls on Sedimentation and Diagenesis of Shallow-Water Carbonates

F. G. Bourrouilh-Le Jan

Miocene to Recent geological records of intertropical carbonates show that the sedimentology and diagenesis of the shallow-water carbonates are controlled by two events. (1) Global changes provoke alternate phases of emersion and submersion. During submersion and depending upon physical and oceanographic data (temperature, development of oceanic currents), most shallow-water carbonates are formed. When sea level falls, erosion, alteration, pedogenesis, and diagenetic events occur. One of the major controls is the fluctuation and evolution of the Ghyben-Herzberg lens and the development of meromictic lakes. Karstic dissolution provokes internal and external cavities which become pedogenetic traps for allochthonous material (tephra, etc) and further control the diagenetic evolution of t apped material as well as substratum carbonates. (2) High-energy events appear to be slow but continuous processes through geological time. They rework former deposits, provoking new high-energy sedimentation and a new superimposed and/or substituted morphology. Sedimentation and diagenesis of shallow-water intertropical carbonates are such an interaction of global changes and high-energy events.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91032©1988 Mediterranean Basins Conference and Exhibition, Nice, France, 25-28 September 1988.