This book contains a collection of 24 papers, most of which were given at a workshop sponsored by the Australian Sedimentology Research Group of the Geological Society of Australia in Geelong, Victoria, Australia, January of 1995. This text is written for experts in carbonate geology, but will be of interest to many geologists and geophysicists who have an interest in carbonates. The papers provide an extremely comprehensive description of how cold-water carbonates are accumulating, and have accumulated, in sea water colder than 20° C. This compilation provides the current understanding of cool-water carbonates in Holocene and similar carbonates from the geological past, differentiating these from tropical carbonates on the basis of their composition and fabric. In a short preface, the editors explain
their objectives and provide a general overview of the book. The first paper, by Noel James, provides an overview of the cool-water carbonate depositional realm. This important paper sets the stage for the rest of the book. It describes how cool-water carbonates tend to be largely composed of magnesium calcite-rich bioclastic remains with few, if any, non-skeletal grains of the kind associated with photosynthesis (such as ooids and aggregate particles). James explains that skeletal corals, large foraminifera, and aragonite skeletal remains are uncommon in these sediments. He separates cool-water carbonates from those of warm water on the basis of their skeletal content. He names cold-water carbonates "heterozoan", while warm-water carbonates are considered to be "protozoan" associations. The latter are tied to warm-water euphotic and aligotropic settings and are composed of aragonite-rich fauna and non-skeletal grains. James describes the various locations in which cold-water carbonates are currently accumulating, and then draws attention to the fact that cold-water carbonates may also have been quite common in the geological past. For instance, he suggests this to be true for the late Ordovician, early Silurian, late Carboniferous, early Permian, mid-Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous, and certainly through the late Tertiary. He describes how cool-water carbonates may accumulate on the slope, outer shelf, middle shelf, and inner shelf. He indicates that their facies and facies geometry are controlled by the shape of the ramp on which they occur and the character of the water circulation involved. These may be cool surface waters, cool waters associated with bottom hugging currents or just bodies of cool water. This important paper provides a framework for the rest of the book. Its clear diagrams, beautiful photomicrographs and the extensive references will be of great help the reader.
The rest of the book consists of three sections. One is entitled "Modern Environments", another "Tertiary Environments", and final one is "Mesozoic and Paleozoic Environments". The Modern Environments section is composed of nine papers and is focused largely on localities along the southern margin of offshore Australia. The last three papers describe offshore New Zealand, offshore northern Norway, and the Spitsbergen Bank of the Barents Sea. These papers are beautifully illustrated with aerial photographs, photographs of the sediments, some sparker profiles and seismic cross-sections, block diagrams, core photographs, and sea-floor photographs. Most of these papers discuss the role of sea level as a control on sedimentary character. The authors of all these papers on the Holocene have attempted to provide a complete and clear exposition of these different research areas and alone their contributions make the book an important volume. The papers that follow are icing on the cake. As in the previous section, the emphasis of these papers is the Tertiary of Australia. They report that cool-water carbonates have been collecting in Australia for the last tens of millions of years, and now form spectacular sections along the south coast, some as cliffs lining the Great Australian Bight, but most occurring in the subsurface. These latter carbonates can be viewed on seismic from the offshore (as in the Gippsland Basin) and onshore (as in the Otway Basin). Most of these papers deal with subsurface occurrences of the Tertiary of Australia, but the last two papers deal with Tertiary carbonates from southeast Spain and Greece, the latter including the upper Pliocene from the Island of Rhodes. The final section of the book consists of seven papers on rocks that range in age from the Ordovician to the Cretaceous. These papers cover a whole variety of geological ages and geographic locations. One is on the Cretaceous Danian of the Danish Basin, and describes some beautiful exposures of bryozoan mounds; another is on the Mesozoic of Sardinia and the Apennines; and the next is on Permian carbonates from the Sverdrup and Barents Sea of the Norwegian, Russian, and Canadian Arctic. There is also a paper on cold-water carbonates from Svalbard, North Greenland, and the Western Barents Sea, and finally there are papers on lower Carboniferous strata of western Canada, the Mississippian carbonates of the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and the Lexington Limestone of the Middle Ordovician of Kentucky. This book is beautifully illustrated and is printed on glossy paper. The photographs are extraordinarily clear and clean, and some papers contain beautiful color diagrams. Undoubtedly this is one of the nicest professional volumes that SEPM has produced. It is tightly written, the text has been well-edited, and there are numerous references associated with all the papers. It's the best compilation on cool-water carbonates around. If you have any interest in carbonate rocks, this is a book for you. The editors, the authors, and SEPM are to be commended for a very professional volume.
CHRISTOPHER KENDALL
Departments of Geological Sciences and Marine Sciences
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
e-mail: [email protected]
Source
http://archives.datapages.com/data/sepm/journals/v66-67/data/068/068004/0710.HTM