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The evolution of reef structures through time: Importance of tectonic and biological controls

Entwicklung von Riffstrukturen in der Zeit: Tektonische und biologische Kontrolle

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Summary

The evolution of reefs is controlled by biological and global factors. The paper stresses the importance of the tectonic and paleogeographical control.

The evolution of reefs is reflected by the changes in the composition of reef-building communities during geological time, by changes in the mineralogical composition of reef carbonates, and by changes in types, sizes and tectonic settings of reefs.

The composition of reef-building communities is characterized by the development of new adaptive patterns with decreasing diversity, by migration of reef-building organisms to low-level communities, and by total or partial extinction of reef organisms.

Several changes in the composition of reef carbonates (calcite, Mg-calcite, aragonite), strongly dependent on the skeletal mineralogy of the reef organisms, are evident during Riphean and Phanerozoic times. These changes coincide only roughly with the long-time intervals recognized for the mineralogical composition of non-reefal carbonates.

Reef types started with the small organic buildups of the Proterozoic and the Early Cambrian followed by the differentiated reefs of the late Cambrian, thedome-shaped pinnacle reefs and atolls of the Ordovician, and the strongly differentiated reef-complexes of the Silurian and Devonian. The importance of bioherms decreased during the Mesozoic and Caenozoic.

Reef structures increased in size during geological time from Precambrian and Cambrian (height=elevation above off-reef basinal bottom: several meters) to Ordovician (height several hundreds of meters), Devonian (more than 1000 meters) to Caenozoic reefs (up to 2000 meters). Increase in thickness (of the total reef structure) and elevation above sea bottom was connected with an increase in the number of facies types.

Paleozoic reefs occur in different tectonic settings (platforms, geosynclines, marginal troughs). Mesozoic and Cenozoic reefs are concentrated in geosynclinal settings but occur also on platforms.

Regarding the paleogeographical location, many Paleozoic reefs are concentrated at the margins of extrageosynclinal deep-water troughs or in front of extended shelf back-reef areas. Another common location is the continental margin. Paleozoic reefs are situated at the western margins in contrast to Cenozoic reefs which are concentrated at eastern margins. Open-marine oceanic reefs developed during the Caenozoic

Major controls in the development of reef structures are, beside sea level fluctuations, variations in the growth rates of reef organisms and differences in the subsidence rates. The striking discrepancy between the high growth potential of reef builders and low growth rates of reef structures supports the explanation that the control by subsidence rates might have been more important than biological controls. Increasing subsidence rates from the Precambrian to the Caenozoic seem to have been responsible for the change in types and sizes of reefs. Tectonic stability and instability should be one of the reef carbonates (platform carbonates). Maxima of reef development coincide with periods characterized by tectonic destabilization and reduction of the non-reef carbonate sedimentation, connected with a reduction of the shallowmarine sedimentation area.

Formation of reefs and deposition of non-reef shelf carbonates are strongly controlled by tectonic and paleogeomorphical conditions:

Pronounced subsidence and the existence of a distinct submarine relief favour the formation of reef carbonates wheras non-reef carbonates are formed in times of stable tectonic conditions, resulting in the existence of wide basins with rather uniform relief. The total rock volume of reef carbonates is low as compared with that of non-reef carbonates but the relative importance of reef carbonates (and perhaps also the development of new reef guilds, see Fig. 1) seems to increase during time, connected with an increase in tectonic movements. This is shown also by the recent and Late Caenozoic examples characterized by the reduction of non-reef carbonate sedimentation caused by the reduction of shallow-marine shelf seas favourable for large-scaled carbonate deposition, and by the relatively low sea-level which supports a strong influx of erosional material. Half of the recent shallow-marine carbonates, therefore, are produced by reefs (Smith 1978).

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  1. Chair of Lithology and Systematic Research of the Lithosphere, I. M. Gubkin Institute of Oil and Gas, GSP-1 Leninsky Prospect 65, USSR, 117917, Moscow

    Vitaly Kuznetsov

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Kuznetsov, V. The evolution of reef structures through time: Importance of tectonic and biological controls. Facies 22, 159–168 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02536950

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