Temporal and spatial variations in the diagenetic fabrics and stable isotopes of Pleistocene corals from the Ironshore Formation of Grand Cayman, British West Indies

On Grand Cayman, the unconformity bounded Units A to F in the Ironshore Formation represent repeated cycles of deposition and subaerial exposure that were associated with the dramatic oscillations in sea levels that characterized the Middle to Late Pleistocene. Montastrea annularis and Acropora palmata, the dominant corals found in Units A to F in the Rogers Wreck Point area and offshore George Town area, reflect these changes with their complex mosaics of marine (aragonite cements, bioerosion, internal sediments) and meteoric (calcitization of coral skeleton, dissolution) diagenetic features. The distribution of the diagenetic fabrics throughout this sequence, however, is not predictable. The randomness in the degree of skeletal calcitization is shown by the lack of systematic variation in calcitization from Units A to F, and the fact that the degree of skeletal calcification in M. annularis is higher than that in A. palmate in the Rogers Wreck Point area but less than in A. palmata in the George Town cores. The stable isotope compositions (delta C-13, delta O-18) of the corals from Units A to F plot along the same trend line with their positions on that trend reflecting the amount of meteoric diagenesis they have undergone. The variable styles and degrees of diagenesis evident in the corals from the Ironshore Formation reflect (1) the variable impact of intrinsic (e.g., skeletal architecture, porosity of coral) and extrinsic (e.g., sea level, climate) factors during each phase of diagenesis, and (2) temporal effects associated with the diagenetic overprinting that took place during each successive phase of diagenesis. This means that the diagenetic fabrics are not stratigraphically ordered and that it is impossible to correlate specific diagenetic phases with specific sea level lowstands or highstands. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.