The carbonate Factory
The carbonate factory was defined by (Schlager, 2005) as the shallow illuminated seafloor, where sediment particles are generated' within the sea water from the crystallization of skeletal remains or precipitation out of sea water. Many consider the carbonate factory to be the core of carbonate deposition throughout the world.
The carbonate factory is governed by the Goldilocks theory of where the physical constrains operating in depositional setting have to be just right. The water can't be too warm, nor too cold, too deep, nor too shallow. Salinity is key along with the amount of terrigenous clastic sediment input to the system. Hence the six major controls are the focus of this section.
1. Evolution
2. Biological Factor
3. Climatic Zone
4. Temperature-Salinity
5. Clastic Sediment Input
6. Water Depth-Turbidity
The actual factory dimensions of a carbonate factory are controlled by the size of the platform and the extent of siliciclastic sedimentation while the vertical extent is controlled by the depth of the photic zone.
Wednesday, April 03, 2013