Lowstand carbonates, highstand sandstones?
The sedimentary facies, sediment dynamics and sequence architecture of modern high-energy shelves in the mid and high latitudes are largely governed by wave abrasion processes. Cool-water carbonates may form there, if the influx and/or net accretion of siliciclastics is kept at a minimum. Little dilution of the carbonate produced in situ is generally promoted by a wide "epicontinental" shelf, subdued topography of the adjacent mainland, the predominance of limestone outcrops, and an arid climate. The aforementioned requirements are rarely met, and thus will automatically lead to the formation of mixed siliciclastic-cool-water carbonates. Such an example is found in the Early to Mid-Miocene …
Carbonate slope re‐sedimentation in a tectonically‐active setting (Western Sicily Cretaceous Escarpment, Italy)
Tectonic processes are widely considered as a mechanism causing carbonate platform margin instabilities leading to the emplacement of mass transport deposits and calciturbidites. However, only few examples establishing a clear link between tectonics and re-sedimentation processes are known from the lit- erature. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional wire-cut walls of hun- dreds of quarries extracting ornamental limestones (for example, Perlato di Sicilia) from the Western Sicily Cretaceous Escarpment in Italy expose a series of mass transport deposits. The depositional architecture, spatial facies distri- bution and sedimentary features of these deposits were studied in detail. Thin sec…