Journal
FACIES
Volume 55, Issue 2, Pages 161-201Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10347-008-0167-z
Keywords
Early diagenesis; Scleractinia; Coral; Palaeoclimate; Porites; Cementation; Bioerosion
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Funding
- QUT
- QUT Australian Tertiary Network Small Grant
- Australian Postgraduate Award to Nothdurft
- Marine Parks Permit from Great Barrier Reef Marine Parks Authority. [G03/9787.1]
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Live-collected samples of four common reef-building coral genera (Acropora, Pocillopora, Goniastrea, Porites) from subtidal and intertidal settings of Heron Reef, Great Barrier Reef, show extensive early marine diagenesis where parts of the coralla less than 3 years old contain abundant macro- and microborings and aragonite, high-Mg calcite, low-Mg calcite, and brucite cements. Many types of cement are associated directly with microendoliths and endobionts that inhabit parts of the corallum recently abandoned by coral polyps. The occurrence of cements that generally do not precipitate in normal shallow seawater (e.g., brucite, low-Mg calcite) highlights the importance of microenvironments in coral diagenesis. Cements precipitated in microenvironments may not reflect ambient seawater chemistry. Hence, geochemical sampling of these cements will contaminate trace-element and stable-isotope inventories used for palaeoclimate and dating analysis. Thus, great care must be taken in vetting samples for both bulk and microanalysis of geochemistry. Visual inspection using scanning electron microscopy may be required for vetting in many cases.
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