Where are carbonate platforms found?

Spectacular examples of present-day carbonate platforms are the Bahama Banks under which the platform is roughly 8 km thick, the Yucatan Peninsula which is up to 2 km thick, the Florida platform, the platform on which the Great Barrier Reef is growing, and the Maldive atolls.

What environments can carbonate rocks form in?

Carbonate sediments originate on land and in the sea. They are formed in three major settings: On the conti- nents, within the transitional area between land and sea, and in the shallow and deep sea.

What are 3 types of depositional environments?

There are 3 kinds of depositional environments, they are continental, marginal marine, and marine environments. Each environments have certain characteristic which make each of them different than others.

What are 4 environments of deposition?

Types of depositional environments

  • Alluvial – type of Fluvial deposit.
  • Aeolian – Processes due to wind activity.
  • Fluvial – processes due to moving water, mainly streams.
  • Lacustrine – processes due to moving water, mainly lakes.

How do you identify a depositional environment?

To identify depositional environments, geologists, like crime scene investigators, look for clues. Detectives may seek fingerprints and bloodstains to identify a culprit. Geologists examine grain size, composition, sorting, bed-surface marks, cross bedding, and fossils to identify a depositional environment.

What are carbonate sediments and how do they form?

Carbonate sedimentary rocks are sedimentary rocks formed at (or near) the Earth’s surface by precipitation from solution at surface temperatures or by accumulation and lithification of fragments of preexisting rocks or remains of organisms.

What is the depositional profile of a carbonate platform?

The depositional profile of T-type carbonate platforms can be subdivided into several sedimentary environments. The carbonate hinterland is the most landward environment, composed by weathered carbonate rocks. The evaporitic tidal flat is a typical low-energy environment.

How is the depositional environment a sink for carbonate sediment?

This depositional environment acts as sink for excess carbonate sediment: most of the sediment produced in the lagoon and reef is transported by various processes and accumulates in the slope, with an inclination depending on the grain size of sediments, and that could attain the settlement angle of gravel (30-34°) at most.

What are the types of carbonate debris flow deposits?

Carbonate debris flow deposits are characterized by a mixture of a wide variety of lithologic types and sizes of angular fragments that have anomalously oriented stratification. They include megabreccias of blocks, up to 25 x 30 m. in cross-section or larger, floating in an enclosing matrix of lime or terrigenous muds.

Which is the outermost part of the carbonate platform?

The periplatform basin is the outermost part of the t-type carbonate platform, and carbonate sedimentation is there dominated by density-cascating processes. The presence of a rim damps the action of waves in the back reef area and a lagoon may develop in which carbonate mud is often produced.