BURTON, LISA M., University of Durham, Dept. of Geological Sciences, Durham, England

ABSTRACT: Carbonate-Clastic Interactions; Implications for the Survival of Modern Reefs

The Tertiary Vic Basin (NE Spain) and Fortuna Basin (SE Spain) provide well-exposed examples of carbonate production and reef development within predominantly siliciclastic semi-arid shelf environments. The Miocene and modern sediments of the Mahakan Delta, Kalimantan, provide an example of reef development in a tropical shelf environment.

The aim of this project is to show the response of coral reefs and associated carbonate-producing organisms to terrigenous siliciclastic sedimentation in terms of species diversity, organism morphology and biotic zonation. This project also aims to explain the evolution of carbonate-clastic successions in response to changing sediment flux, climate and sea-level change. This aim will be addressed, by a detailed sedimentological study of ancient carbonate-clastic successions and snorkeling along selected traverses of the modern reefs associated with the Mahakan Delta.

This project will provide a better understanding of the interrelationships between carbonate and clastic facies. Coral reefs are important ecological and economic resources. Sedimentation is a serious environmental problem in modern reefs and this project will enable the effects of a clastic influx to be predicted.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90909©2000 AAPG Foundation Grants-in-Aid