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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1985; v. 18; p. 173-188;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1985.018.01.09
© 1985 Geological Society of London

Diagenesis

Diagenesis of shallow-marine carbonates

J. A. D. Dickson

Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ

The utility of carbonate petrography in solving diagenetic problems is often underrated. Staining and cathodoluminescence are complementary to petrographic studies; their application is compared. Interpretation of carbonate trace element concentration through the distribution coefficient, as illustrated by Sr2+, was oversimplified in the 1970s and often tied to repeated recrystallization episodes in meteoric waters. Kinetic factors complicate the use of the distribution coefficient in calcite. {delta}13C values from carbonates help in identifying the source of carbon but {delta}18O values are difficult to interpret due to control by temperature as well as the isotopic composition of the precipitation fluids. Data on the composition of sedimentary waters, geothermometry and geobarometry of buried sedimentary rocks can be provided by fluid inclusion studies but interpretation has often been over-optimistic, because insufficient account has been taken of the difficulties which exist with fluid inclusion work.

Near-surface, carbonate diagenesis is well understood through field studies of Recent and Pleistocene sediments. Research effort in the future, it is predicted, will concentrate on burial diagenesis because it is the least understood diagenetic realm. The large variations in temperature, pressure and time which distinguish burial from near-surface environments are exemplified by the burial history of the Carboniferous Limestone of South Wales.