Shoal-water carbonates marine

It is convenient to divide the deposition of carbonates in marine sediments into those being deposited in shallow (shoal) water (water depths of a few hundred meters or less) and those being deposited in deep sea sediments, where the water depth is on the order of kilometers. The primary reasons for this division are the differing sources, dominant mineralogies, and accumulation processes operative in these environments. Shoal water carbonates are the topic of Chapter 5. Naturally, there are "grey" areas of intermediate characteristics between these two extremes, such as continental slopes and the flanks of carbonate banks and atolls. 

In this chapter and the following, shoal-water ("shallow-water") carbonate sediments, and the seawaters they form from, are examined. Emphasis is on the biogeochemical processes affecting carbonate materials in this global marine environment, not on the general sedimentology of shoal-water carbonate deposits. The latter subject is discussed in innumerable publications such as "Carbonate Depositional Environments" (Scholle et al., 1983), to which the reader is referred. 

Early Marine Diagenesis of Shoal-Water Carbonate Sediments... 

EARLY MARINE DIAGENESIS OF SHOAL-WATER CARBONATE SEDIMENTS... 

EARLY marine diagenesis of shoal-water carbonate sediments... 

A major complicating factor in the diagenesis of shoal-water carbonate-rich sediments is that much of the organic matter oxidation can take place via bacterially mediated sulfate reduction. If marine plankton-like organic matter is oxidized via sulfate reduction, the nutrients phosphate and ammonia are also produced (Equation (6)) ... 

Carbonate minerals in modem marine sediments can readily be divided into those found in shoal-to-shallow and deep-water environments. The factors controlling the sources, mineralogy, and diagenesis of carbonates in these environments are very different. Within the shoal-to-shallow water environment, the sources and diagenesis of carbonates differ substantially between carbonate-rich and primarily siliciclastic sediments. 

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