A new type of shelf margin deposit: rigid microbial sheets and unconsolidated grainstones riddled with meter-scale cavities

Abstract

Middle Cambrian microbial limestone contains a network of unusual, predominantly horizontal cavities up to 2 m in length and 0. 5 m in height. The microbialite experienced rapid syndepositional lithification, but adjacent grainstone sediments remained unlithified during deposition. This juxtaposition contributed to sediment instability, resulting in fracturing and brecciation of the lithified microbialite while unconsolidated grainstones underwent slumping and injection into some cavities. Remaining space within the cavities was colonized by a series of encrustations: thin crusts (2‐8 mm) of laminated algal mats, followed by several generations of calcified Renalcis-like cyanobacteria up to 45 mm thick. Remaining void space was partially filled by internal sediment, and then sequentially occluded by banded radiaxial fibrous calcite, herringbone calcite, and finally saddle dolomite cements. The radiaxial and herringbone calcite cements precipitated from porewaters derived from seawater that became anoxic through the breakdown of organic matter in the microbialite. Noteworthy is the presence of herringbone calcite cement, not as a seafloor precipitate, but as an early cavity fill. We propose that the unusual bedding-parallel fractures were caused by gravity collapse along a shallow platform margin. Coeval foreslope sediments show syndepositional slumping, faulting, and mass flow deposits. These redeposited sediments contain boulders of microbialite and grainstone of platform margin provenance. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.