The role of high-energy events (hurricanes and/or tsunamis) in the sedimentation, diagenesis and karst initiation of tropical shallow water carbonate platforms and atolls

Abstract

Karst morphology appears early, even during carbonate sediment deposition. Examples from modern to 125-ka-old sub-, inter- and supratidal sediments are given from the Bahamas (Atlantic Ocean) and from Tuamotuan atolls (southeastern Pacific Ocean), with mineralogical and hydrological analyses. Karstification is favoured by the aragonitic composition of bioclasts coming from the shallow marine bio-factory. Lithification by aragonite cements appears as a rim around carbonate deposits and dissolution and non-cementation start at the same time on modern supratidal deposits (Andros micrite or atoll coral rudite) and provoke the formation of a central depression on small or large carbonate platforms. In fact, this early solution of the centre of platforms is closely related to the location of each of the studied examples on hurricane tracks. High-energy events, such as hurricanes and tsunamis, affect sediment transport but hurricanes also affect diagenesis as a result of the enormous volume of freshwater carried and discharged along their paths. This couple, lithification–solution, is localised at sea level and accompanies sea-level fluctuations along the eustatic curve. Because of the precise location of hurricane action all around the Earth, early karstification by aragonite solution, cementation and supratidal carbonate sediment accumulations (high-energy trails) act together on all the platforms and atolls located inside the Tropics (23°27′) between roughly 5°–10° and 25° on both hemispheres. However, early karstification acts alone on shallow carbonate platforms including atolls along the equatorial belt between 5°–10°N and 5°–10°S. These early steps of karstification are linked to the ocean–atmosphere interface due to the bathymetrical position of shallow carbonate platforms, including atolls. They lead to complex karstified emerged platforms, called high carbonate islands, where carbonate diagenesis, together with the development of bauxite- and/or a phosphate-rich cover and phreatic lens, will occur.