Page 49 - Carbonate Facies in Geologic History

36 The Stratigraphy of Carbonate Deposits

BASIN SHElf IlARGI N SHELf SL 1 GHl COitPAC TI ""
6 9

...... ... ...

Fig.II-l3. Idealized carbonate platform showing comparative width of standard facies belts
and areas of slight compaction in shelf lagoon and starved basin. See also Meissner (1972,
Fig. 8), with permission of West Texas Geological Society

PBMIAN REEf COMPlEx. =--------=PI==:M-1OO'---·---....lJ""..,m"n.""mm,m"""''''''mllJlllmlliiu;mnnrmmmu;;m,Mim;m~~.-1tClATOH
i'l:W MEXICO LAGOON

KlRI(lJI( OUGOC.ENE REEf. =="'1 ~11,;,;Olu=.=~.." .... _____ LAND
IRAQ
o 1.1 __ ...... 1 ____
1
IOOkm
~
GEOSYNCLINE
a .... BRA BAI«S,CRET .... CEOUS,
MEXICO
HORSESHOe .... Tou. c WEST • TIDY CO
WEST TEXAS PENN
DEVONIAN, AI.6ERTA BASIN
lfOWAIU lANK
lAND.cv.TON
MADISON GROUP, MISS. ====~~~======~~-~~jjj~;;;"";;h""m""'m""m""m""'m""~m#,
WWSTON BAS1'4 LAGOON

MDOlE StURIAN, UN:)IS

Fig.II-14. Comparison of several major carbonate platforms and offshore banks. Reduced
vertical exaggeration. Horizontal scales are all the same. Vertical exaggeration is X 10. Shows
relative width of facies belts at shelf margins

commonly cemented early in their diagenetic history and compact only slightly
owing to some fresh water solution of individual grains.
A knowledge of this sedimentary topography and its rapidly changing facies is
critical to proper correlation, particularly in subsurface mapping. This may not be
easy if the basin is filled later with other sediment. The recognition of this deposi-
tional topography is credited to John Rich (1951) who christened its shelf, slope
and basin components respectively undafarm, dinafarm, and fandafarm. Though
Rich was concerned principally with regional outbuilding by terrigenous clastic
sediments, the principle applies equally to carbonates.