Palaeohydrogeological control of palaeokarst macro-porosity genesis during a major sea-level lowstand: Danian of the Urbasa–Andia plateau, Navarra, North Spain

An extensive palaeokarst porosity system, developed during a pronounced mid-Paleocene third-order lowstand of sea level, is hosted in Danian limestones of the Urbasa–Andia plateau in north Spain. These limestones were deposited on a 40–50 km wide rimmed shelf with a margin characterised by coralgal buildups and coarse-grained bioclastic accumulations. The sea-level fall that caused karstification was of approximately 80–90 m magnitude and 2.5 Ma in duration. During the exposure, a 450 m wide belt of sub-vertical margin-parallel fractures developed a few hundred metres inboard of the shelf edge. Most fractures are 90–100 m deep, average 1 m in width, and are associated with large erosional features created by collapse of the reefal margin. Inland from the fracture belt, three superimposed laterally extensive cave systems were formed over a distance of 3.5 km perpendicular to shelf edge, at depths ranging from 8–31 m below the exposure surface. The palaeocaves range from 0.3 to 2 m in height, average 1.5 m high. They show no evidence of meteoric processes and are filled with Thanetian grainstones rich in reworked Microcodium, a lithology that also occurs infilling the fractures. The caves are interpreted as due to active corrosion at the saline water–fresh-water mixing zone. Caves are missing from the shelf edge zone probably because the fractures beheaded the meteoroic lens preventing mixing-zone cave development beyond the fracture zone. Towards the platform interior, each cave system passes into a prominent horizon, averaging 1 m in thickness, of spongy porosity with crystal silt infills and red Fe-oxide coatings. The spongy horizons can be traced for 5.5 km inboard from the cave zone and occur at 10.5 m, 25 m and 32 m below the exposure surface. In the inland zone, two additional horizons with the same spongy dissolution have been recognised at depths of 50 m and 95 m. All are analogous to Swiss-cheese mixing-zone corrosion in modern carbonate aquifers and probably owe their origins to microbially-mediated dis

The significant role of sediment bio-retexturing within a contemporary carbonate platform system: Implications for carbonate microfacies development

Assessments of carbonate platform reef–lagoon sediments and benthic habitats around Rodrigues Island (south-west Indian Ocean) have been undertaken in order to examine carbonate sediment textural properties and the controls on texturally-defined sediment fabrics. Reef–lagoon sediments, sampled from across the expansive (~ 8 km wide) carbonate-dominated windward platform, principally comprise poorly sorted medium- to coarse-grained bioclastic sands, composed of a low diversity of grain constituents — predominantly non-geniculate coralline algal bioclasts. Despite a marked homogeneity in sediment compositional and grain size properties, eight distinct sediment textural groups can be identified that form a heterogeneous mosaic across the contemporary reef–lagoon system. Only along the narrow outer platform margins (reef crest, sand apron and outermost lagoon environments) do we observe consistent (predictable) transitions in sediment textural groups, where physical processes are the primary drivers of selective sediment transport and sorting. In contrast, across the main expanse of the lagoon, the sediment substrates are characterised by an irregular mosaic of texturally-defined sediment groups — formed primarily as a function of sediment bio-retexturing. The burrowing activities of alpheid and callianassid shrimps are particularly important in this respect and impart a distinctly unique textural fabric to the upper sediment horizons in the environments in which the respective organisms occur. The consequence of this is that, at the platform system scale, individual, texturally-defined sediment groups are relatively poor indicators of prevailing hydrodynamic regimes or of local sediment production, reflecting more the biological action of organisms inhabiting the substrate. This has important implications for understanding the development of carbonate sediment fabrics in the context of palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and for interpreting a key diagnostic criteria of carbonate microfacies. [Retrieved from publisher\u27s website: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0037073809001171