Cementation of bryozoan-echinoid-benthic foraminiferal temperate shelf carbonates of the Oligocene Te Kuiti Group, North Island, New Zealand, occurred mainly during subsurface burial. The calcite cements in the limestones are dominated by equant and syntaxial rim spar which typically becomes ferroan (given an iron supply) and, compared to the skeletal material with normal marine δ
18O values from +2 to −1‰, more depleted in
18O with depth of burial, the δ
18O composition of bulk cement samples ranging from −1 to −7‰. These trends reflect the establishment in pore waters during sediment burial of reducing conditions and gradually increasing temperatures (20–50°C), respectively. The δ
13C values (0 to +3‰) of the cements remain the same as the host marine shells, suggesting the source of carbon in the cements was simply redistributed marine carbonate derived from shell dissolution.
Two gradational burial diagenetic environments influenced by marine-derived porewaters are arbitrarily distinguished: shallow burial phase and moderate burial phase. During the shallow burial phase, down to 500–600 m sub-bottom depth, the carbonates lost at least 25% of their original porosity by mechanical compaction and were selectively cemented by non-ferroan or usually ferroan, variably luminescent, slightly 18O-depleted sparry calcite cement (δ18O −2 to −4‰), mainly as syntaxial rims about echinoid grains. These shallow-burial cements form less than about 10% of total cement in the majority of the limestones and their source was probably mainly mild intergranular dissolution of calcitic skeletal fragments accompanying the onset of chemical compaction. During the moderate burial phase, between about 600 and 1100 m sub-bottom depth, porosity loss continued (typically to about 70% of its original value) as a result of pressure-solution of calcitic bioclasts associated with more advanced stages of chemical compaction. This involved development of a wide variety of non-sutured and microstylolitic solution seams, including both single and composite, wispy or continuous, bedding-parallel types and non-parallel reticulate forms. The released carbonate was precipitated as ferroan (or non-ferroan where iron supply was negligible), dull luminescent, strongly 18O-depleted (δ18O −4 to −7‰), mainly equant calcite spar cement, occluding available pore space in the limestones. 相似文献
