Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

Journal of the Geological Society

This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Balson, P. S. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Temperate, meteoric diagenesis of Pliocene skeletal carbonates from eastern England

The Crags of eastern England include marine skeletal carbonates which were deposited and lithified under temperate conditions. The Coralline Crag (Pliocene), in particular, exhibits a variety of carbonate cement types which indicate exposure to meteoric groundwaters during a regressive episode.

The Coralline Crag has been divided into an upper division of dominantly well sorted skeletal calcarenites and calcirudites and a lower, poorly sorted silty calcarenite division. ‘Dogtooth’ spar&dcl001;cement and rudimentary syntaxial cement overgrowths on echinoderm fragments are characteristic of the sediments of the upper division, which has undergone extensive aragonite dissolution. This division is consequently relatively evenly cemented. In the underlying sediments aragonite dissolution has not occurred and the sediments have remained largely uncemented, with cement restricted to irregular patches where growth of intra- and inter-particle equant spar has effectively eliminated porosity. In contrast with the upper leached sediments, syntaxial echinoderm overgrowths show a greater development but only where interference from surrounding sediment and sparry cement was absent. The elongate shape of the Coralline Crag outcrop may be the result of preferential cementation of the upper, coarser, well sorted calcarenites originally deposited as an elongate sediment body, possibly as an offshore sandbank.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. Williams, A. M Haywood, E. M Harper, A. L.A Johnson, T. Knowles, M. J Leng, D. J Lunt, B. Okamura, P. D Taylor, and J. Zalasiewicz Pliocene climate and seasonality in North Atlantic shelf seas Phil Trans R Soc A, January 13, 2009; 367(1886): 85 - 108. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]