Depending on the dominant carbonate factory, we can distinguish three types of carbonate platforms: T-type carbonate platforms (produced by tropical factories), C-type carbonate platforms (produced by cool-water factories), M-type carbonate platforms (produced by mud-mound factories).

What is a rimmed carbonate platform?

A rimmed carbonate shelf is a flat-topped platform that has a rim of reefs or carbonate sand shoals along the seaward margin. The reef or shoal forms a barrier that absorbs most of the wave energy from the open ocean.

What type of carbonate platform is the Bahamas?

The Great Bahama Bank is a Holocene (recent) shallow water carbonate platform in the Atlantic Ocean east of Florida and north of Cuba.

What are carbonate environments?

Carbonate environments occur both in the terrestrial and marine realms as well as in transitional zones between the land and the sea. The variety of environments spans from high-elevation continental lakes to the deep sea, from the equator to latitudes of about 60 , and they include dry and wet climate realms.

How are carbonates deposited?

Carbonate deposition can occur in non-marine lakes as a result of evaporation, in which case the carbonates are associated with other evaporite deposits, and as a result of organisms that remove CO2 from the water causing it to become oversaturated with respect to calcite. Hot Springs.

What are carbonate producers?

In the open ocean, the carbonate producers are micro- scopic foraminifera (microscopic animals) and coccolitho- phores (microscopic algae) which are carried around in the oceanic systems and once they die their calcareous skele- tons sink to the bottom of the ocean and form part of the oceanic bed (Langer 2008, Shutler …

What is carbonate ramp?

Carbonate ramps are carbonate platforms which have a very low gradient depositional slope (commonly less than 0.1°) from a shallow-water shoreline or lagoon to a basin floor (Burchette & Wright 1992). A large proportion of carbonate successions in the geological record were deposited in ramp-like settings.

What are carbonate facies?

Varied settings of carbonate deposits. Collectively studies have shown that carbonate facies are commonly the product of processes that are active in their depositional setting. Water depth, winds, waves, currents, temperature, water chemistry, and biologic action all affect the character of the carbonate formed.

What are carbonate deposits?

Carbonate Deposition: The formation of carbonate minerals due to carbonate precipitating out of solution. Geothermal fluids often contain carbonates and as the temperature of the fluids cool when they reach the surface carbonate minerals precipitate out of the solution.

How do carbonate shelves form?

Most carbonate sediments are formed by the accumulation of skeletons and shells constructed by marine organisms through the precipitation of calcium carbonate (e.g. corals, molluscs, and foraminifera). … Skeletal sediments occur in both the warm and the cold waters of the world’s shelf areas (Figure 2).

Where are carbonate muds found?

Such transported carbonates, referred to sometimes as ‘re-deposited’ or ‘allodapic’ limestones, are particularly common on the steep flanks of rimmed platforms and reefs. In warm, clear, shallow water, organic reefs may form by the in situ growth of corals, bryozoa, algae, and many other sedentary biota.

What is the Bahama platform?

The Bahama Platform consists of a series of thick, shallow-water carbonate banks that have been built along the subsiding continental margin of North America, which extends more than 1,400 km from Florida to the island of Hispaniola (Fig. 1).

Is granite a carbonate rock?

Granite is an igneous rock. … Limestone is classed as a sedimentary rock. It was formed on the surface of the Earth by the process of sedimentation, with several minerals or organic particles coming together to form a solid sediment. Limestone is formed from at least 50 per cent calcium carbonate.

Which rocks are carbonates?

Carbonate rocks are also a class of sedimentary rocks that are composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types of carbonate rocks are limestone (CaCO3) and dolostone, primarily composed of the mineral dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2).

What are carbonate reservoirs?

Carbonate reservoirs are characterized by extremely heterogeneous porosity and permeability. … These heterogeneities are caused by the wide spectrum of environments in which carbonates are deposited and by subsequent diagenetic alteration of the original rock fabric.

What are carbonate minerals used for?

The carbonates have several important uses—Ca carbonates in the manufacture of cement, dolomite in refractory materials, and siderite and rhodochrosite as sources of iron and manganese.

Is marble a carbonate rock?

marble, granular limestone or dolomite (i.e., rock composed of calcium-magnesium carbonate) that has been recrystallized under the influence of heat, pressure, and aqueous solutions. Commercially, it includes all decorative calcium-rich rocks that can be polished, as well as certain serpentines (verd antiques).

How does carbonate affect the environment?

Calcium carbonate is the active ingredient in agricultural lime, and is used in animal feed. Calcium carbonate also benefits the environment through water and waste treatment. … Calcium carbonate decomposes to form carbon dioxide and lime, an important material in making steel, glass, and paper.

Where does carbonate come from in the ocean?

To make calcium carbonate, shell-building marine animals such as corals and oysters combine a calcium ion (Ca+ 2) with carbonate (CO3 2) from surrounding seawater, releasing carbon dioxide and water in the process.

Is calcium carbonate good for the ocean?

The Chemistry Calcium carbonate minerals are the building blocks for the skeletons and shells of many marine organisms. In areas where most life now congregates in the ocean, the seawater is supersaturated with respect to calcium carbonate minerals.

Why is the carbonate compensation depth important?

The position of the CCD is important to the global carbon cycle because it determines how much inorganic carbon is stored in deep ocean sediments. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere also is interdependent with ocean productivity and the saturation state of seawater.

What is carbonate reef?

Introduction. The term reef is used to refer to any biologically influenced carbonate accumulation which is large enough to have developed topographic relief above the sea floor (Reading, 1996).

What is the main factor that controls the ability of organisms to create carbonate sediment?

The Requisite Marine Environment: Warmth, Light,Water Movement. Most, though not all, carbonate sedimentation results basically from chemical or biochemical processes occurring in a special marine environment: one of clear, warm, shallow water.

Where do Boundstones form?

Boundstone is an indigenous deposit of limestone that was bound by algae, coral, or other unicellular organism when it was formed. Boundstone is found in areas surrounding coral reefs, and areas that were coral reefs 2.5-3 million years ago, but may be surrounded by dry land today.

Where are Grainstones found?

Pleistocene reef limestones, lagoonal packstone-wackestones, strandline grainstones, and calcretes are exposed in quarries and low sea cliffs along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from the northern cape to Tulum (Fig. 7-1).

Is Grainstone a sedimentary rock?

Definition: Carbonate sedimentary rock with recognizable depositional fabric that is grain-supported, and constituent particles are of intrabasinal origin; contains little or no mud matrix.

What is an example of a carbonate?

Carbonate is a name for rocks and minerals which contain a molecule made of both carbon and oxygen known as CO3 2 . … Limestone is an example of a calcium carbonate, CaCO3, which means a combination of calcium (Ca2 +) and carbonate (CO3 2 ). Other examples of carbonates include calcite, dolomite, and marble.

Where are turbidites found?

Turbidites are deposited in the deep ocean troughs below the continental shelf, or similar structures in deep lakes, by underwater avalanches which slide down the steep slopes of the continental shelf edge.

How many carbonates are there?

There are approximately 80 known carbonate minerals, but most of them are rare.