Carbonate cementation phreatic zone

Cementation in the phreatic zone occurred preferentially in zones of high primary permeability, whereas vadose cementation occurred principally in association with soil development. Pedogenic carbonates may have served as nucleation sites for later phreatic cementation, leading to complex zones of mixed pedogenic and phreatic cements. 

Carbonate cements are often among the dominant components of diagenesis and hence are of decisive importance in determining the reservoir quality of sandstone sequences. Despite this, the timing, the geochemical conditions of precipitation and dissolution, as well as the source and fate of these cements are not fully understood. In continental and near-shore sediments, cements commonly precipitate as calcretes and dolocretes in the vadose and phreatic zones, and attain a variety of mineral-ogical, textural and distribution patterns as well as elemental and isotopic compositions. These cements form lenses and layers of densely cemented... 

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