Carbonate sedimentation tectonics

Steuber T. and Veizer J. (2002) Phanerozoic record of plate tectonic control of seawater chemistry and carbonate sedimentation. Geology 1123—1126. 

Holland and Zimmermann, 2000). The latter authors do accept, however, that there is generally lower dolomite abundance in carbonate sediments deposited during the past 200 Myr. These qualihcations notwithstanding, a number of previously described parameters (Sr/Ca, Mg/ Ca, aragonite/calcite, possibly dolomite/calcite, and frequency of ooids and iron ores) appear to be related in some degree to sea-level stands, the latter at least in part a reflection of plate tectonic activity during the Phanerozoic. 

The Ordovician rocks of the eastern-most part of the Baltic palaeocontinent were deposited in a remarkable epicontinental basin with no apparent modern analogues. Sediment rates were very low, in the order of 1-3 mm per 1,000 years and predominantly carbonates. The seafloor had little topography and the eastern part of the basin, at least, was tectonically stable for much of its history. Carbonate sediments were generated across much of the continent during most of the period. In the East Baltic the Ordovician succession reaches a thickness of up to 250 m in the central part of the region, in west Latvia. To the west, however, in the Oslo Region, thicker successions, in the order of 1.5 km, are characterised by the significant input of siliciclastic material from the adjacent Caledonian mountain belt (Bruton and Harper, 1988). 

The basement is made up of crystalline schists of the meso-metamorphic Somes Series. Sedimentation started during Permian with detritic deposits interbedded with rhyolites. The overlying Triassic deposits are unconformable and include detritic formations (Lower Triassic) and massive layers of carbonate rocks (Middle Triassic). The absence of the Upper Triassic is due to the uplift of the region during the Kimmeric tectonic phase. 

Stanley SM, Hardie LA (1998) Secular oscillations in the carbonate mineralogy of reef-building and sediment-producing organisms driven by tectonically forced shifts in seawater chemistry. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 144 3-19... 

With the advent of stable isotope paleoaltimetry towards the turn of the millennium the stable isotope and tectonics communities have witnessed an increasing number of isotopic mineral proxies developed to address the long-term topographic histories of orogenic belts and continental plateaus. These proxies include calcite from paleosols (see for example Quade et al. 2007, this volume and references therein), fluvial and lacustrine rocks the phosphate and carbonate component of mammal teeth (Kohn and Dettman 2007, this volume and references therein), smectite and kaolinite from paleosols, weathered sediments and volcanic ashes (e.g., Chamberlain et al. 1999 Takeuchi and Larson 2005 Mulch et al. 2006a) as well as white mica from extensional shear zones and fluid inclusions in hydrothermal veins (e.g., Mulch et al. 

These vertical movements can be linked to plate tectonic dynamics, but not all vertical movements may be a result of plate tectonics. It should be kept in mind that before the time of unidirectional burial of a sediment, as depicted for the carbonate rock sequence of Figure 7.4, for its first 125 million years of existence, the position of the sediment-water (air) interface may vary for reasons other than tectonics. Episodes of continental glaciation and deglaciation, as well as geoidal perturbations... 

The above view is clearly supported by the mass/age distribution of lithologies within the same tectonic domain. For example, carbonates, chert, red clay, and terrigeneous sediments on the ocean floor (Hay et al., 1988) all have the same type of age distribution pattern that is controlled by a single variable, the rate of spreading and subduction of the ocean floor. This sedimentary mass also differs lithologically from its continental counterpart, because it is comprised of... 

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