Introduction
This section is designed to be an introduction to the geology of the Holocene shallow water carbonate sediments exposed over the Great Bahamas Bank. While all geologic occurrences of carbonate and clastic sediments have a "unique" character imposed by the specifics of the depositional setting for that location and time, they also carry many common signals. This gallery of photographs should help you identify common and different signals for the carbonates you can see in the Holocene and the ancient. Most of these photographs were taken by Christopher Kendall while making field observations of the Great Bahamas carbonate shelf and reef margin complex, probably the most well known and most thoroughly studied Holocene carbonate platforms of the world. These carbonates have accumulated here from the Late Triassic to present day on the western margin of the Atlantic since the inception of the ocean body, responding to changing sea level and productivity.
Most of the materials and text used on this site are based on the publications and the compendium of information assembled by Christopher Kendall and colleagues he has worked with over the years. Many of the maps and diagrams presented in the below are from the publications linked to the page. There are also a number of spectacular photographic images taken from outer space that have been downloaded from NASA.