Abstract
The Abaco windward lagoon, bounded bankward by Great Abaco Island and seaward by the discontinuous Abaco Cays, exhibits up to 6 m or more of lagoonal, non-reef derived sediments, 5 km from the marginal escarpment of northeastern Little Bahama Bank. Six sedimentary facies, distinguished by texture, composition, and molluscan fauna, record the changing depositional environments as water depth and circulation increased during the Holocene transgression. A skeletal grainstone and mixed (skeletal-ooid-aggregate) grainstone are limited to inter-island channel areas. Away from these channel energy windows, a maximum sequence of 4 depositional facies is observed. The bulk of sediments are a normal marine (N.M.) skeletal wackestone or mixed (pellet-skeletal) packstone. The N.M. wa kestone dominates the western half of Abaco lagoon while the packstone occurrence End_Page 949------------------------------ characterizes eastern Abaco lagoon where it overlies the wackestone facies, accounting for 50% of the normal marine section. The N.M. wackestone typically grades downward into a dark gray restricted marine (brackish to hypersaline) skeletal wackestone, ^eqles70 cm thick, and then to a dark brown nonmarine soil zone, <=16 cm thick, above bedrock. Radiocarbon dates indicate flooding of Abaco lagoon at least by 7,446 YBP at - 10 m, followed by the transition from restricted to normal marine conditions as early as 4,716 YBP. Sedimentation rates increase from 16 cm/1,000 years for the restricted marine wackestone, to 58-104 cm/1,000 years and 216 cm/1,000 years for the N.M. wackestone and packstone facies, respectively. The windward lagoon setting illustrates the caution required in pre iction of facies continuity perpendicular to carbonate bank margins. Recognition of an ancient windward lagoon sequence may have important implications regarding sea level history and paleogeographic reconstruction. End_of_Article - Last_Page 950------------
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