Carbonate platform

The Bahama Banks are an example of a carbonate platform

A carbonate platform is a sedimentary body which possesses topographic relief, and is composed of autochthonic calcareous deposits.[1] Platform growth is mediated by sessile organisms whose skeletons build up the reef or by organisms (usually microbes) which induce carbonate precipitation through their metabolism. Therefore, carbonate platforms can not grow up everywhere: they are not present in places where limiting factors to the life of reef-building organisms exist. Such limiting factors are, among others: light, water temperature, transparency and pH-Value. For example, carbonate sedimentation along the Atlantic South American coasts takes place everywhere but at the mouth of the Amazon River, because of the intense turbidity of the water there.[2] Spectacular examples of present-day carbonate platforms are the Bahama Banks under which the platform is roughly 8 km thick, the Yucatan Peninsula which is up to 2 km thick, the Florida platform,[3] the platform on which the Great Barrier Reef is growing, and the Maldive atolls.[4] All these carbonate platforms and their associated reefs are confined to tropical latitudes.[5] Today's reefs are built mainly by scleractinian corals, but in the distant past other organisms, like archaeocyatha (during the Cambrian) or extinct cnidaria (tabulata and rugosa) were important reef builders.

  1. ^ Wilson, James Lee (1975). Carbonate facies in geologic history. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0387072364. OCLC 1366180.
  2. ^ Carannante, G.; Esteban, M.; Milliman, J. D.; Simone, L. (1988-11-01). "Carbonate lithofacies as paleolatitude indicators: problems and limitations". Sedimentary Geology. Non-tropical shelf carbonates-modern and ancient. 60 (1): 333–346. Bibcode:1988SedG...60..333C. doi:10.1016/0037-0738(88)90128-5. ISSN 0037-0738.
  3. ^ Geologic Map of Florida[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "Bahamas Introduction". www.tamug.edu. Archived from the original on 2009-11-22. Retrieved 2006-03-09.
  5. ^ "ReefGIS - Location of Coral Reefs - Reef Basemap". Archived from the original on 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2007-03-12.