Cyclicity in Pleistocene upper-slope cool-water carbonates: Unravelling sedimentary dynamics in deep-water sediments, Great Australian Bight, Odp Leg 182, Site 1131A

Abstract

Ocean Drilling Program Site 1131, located in the central Great Australian Bight, recovered an expanded series of Pleistocene cool-water carbonates. Three distinct facies are arranged in repeating sedimentary cycles. Omission intervals form the base of the cycles and are overlain by laminated deposits. The upper part of the cycles consists of bioturbated sediments. Facies cyclicity parallels glacial–interglacial sea-level changes. Firmground/hardground surfaces formed during latest stages of sea-level falls. Laminated sediments were deposited during later sea-level fall and/or early phases of the sea-level lowstand, and the bioturbated intervals are related to interglacial sea-level highstands. Bottom current activity is interpreted to play an important control on facies and cycle development. During the late stages of sea-level fall, upwelling currents winnowed the slope sediments, leading to hardground formation. During latest sea-level falls and early sea-level lowstands, a relative increase in the ramp sediment supply to the slope leading to the formation of the laminated facies was also a response to the continued action of the near-bottom upwelling currents that reworked previously deposited sediments along the slope. During the early sea-level rises, laminated, upwelling-influenced facies were progressively covered by the bioturbated facies. The adopted approach to decipher sedimentary cyclicity, involving the integrated use of wireline logs, geochemical data, FMS images and sedimentological analysis of the lithofacies has allowed to recognise subtle facies changes in upper-slope settings of a distally-steepened carbonate ramp and their relationship with the sea level, as well as to unravel the importance of the oceanic-current regime in the deposition style on the ramp that otherwise would remain unsolved. This integrated method could be applied to study more precisely apparently homogeneous fine-grained calcareous sediment successions of distal-ramp outcrops.