Diagenetic alterations in temperate shelf carbonates from southeastern Australia

Abstract

Temperate shelf carbonates form in cool marine waters and have skeletal and mineralogical compositions which are different from their tropical counterparts. They commonly lack non-skeletal grains and are often composed of low- and high-magnesium calcite with subordinate aragonite. Many of the aragonitic components found in tropical carbonates, such as corals, ooids, blue-green algae and lime mud, are absent. Temperate shelf carbonates undergo diagenesis in marine waters with lower carbonate saturation than do tropical carbonates, and are exposed to cool climates with moderate to low rainfall. Marine cementation is rare because of low carbonate saturations in the surrounding waters. However, aragonite and high-magnesium calcite cements have been reported forming under specialized conditions associated with biogenic precipitation, submarine methane and sulphate-reducing bacteria, and more commonly in the intertidal environment where evaporation has increased carbonate concentrations. In Pleistocene and Tertiary temperate shelf carbonates from southeastern Australia, evidence of marine diagenesis is rare to absent. Diagenetic stabilization of aragonite and high-magnesium calcite has taken from 80,000 y to 1 My, or longer, during subaerial exposure. This is slower than rates reported from tropical climates. A general lack of aragonite in some facies within these temperate carbonates leads to a lack of secondary porosity and only sparse low-magnesium calcite cement, even after prolonged fresh-water diagenesis. However, with lengthy exposure and under the right climatic conditions, karstic solution and calcrete precipitation can occur. In sequences containing siliciclastic clays, pyrite and glauconite, abundant iron is present in interstitial waters leading to the precipitation of ferroan calcite cements in the phreatic and shallow burial environments, and to the substitution of iron for magnesium in stabilizing high-magnesium calcite skeletal material. A unique void-filling, micritic internal sediment occurs in discrete layers in many of the Tertiary temperate shelf carbonate sequences in southeastern Australia. This internal sediment is localized as a pore-filling material above permeability barriers such as fine-grained sediments or volcanics, and above paleo-water tables which formed during periods of subaerial exposure. It is a feature of the vadose zone and lithifies to form a dense micritic low-magnesium calcite cement with characteristic pink/brown coloration, often associated with erosion surfaces and nodule beds. Dolomite is uncommon in the southeastern Australian temperate shelf carbonates. It forms associated with preferential fluid pathways or mixing zones. Ferroan dolomite forms in siliciclastic clay-rich carbonates in the shallow burial environment. The ubiquitous fine, evaporite-related dolomite so common in tropical carbonates is absent.