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Integration and Interpretation

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Biogenic Sedimentary Rocks in a Cold, Cenozoic Ocean

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Abstract

The Cenozoic successions are integrated and analyzed here with respect to the dominant controlling factors present during deposition, namely tectonics, oceanography, climate, and influence of Antarctica. Middle Eocene–early Oligocene SA2 biogenic shelf sediments accumulated during a time of at first warm, but then gradually cooling ocean waters under a relative quiescent tectonic regimen. The climate was mostly humid subtropical with extensive temperate rainforests and fluvial activity that gradually waned in the post-Eocene. It is interpreted that the prolific nutrient elements delivered from land during the Eocene promoted extensive neritic biosiliceous deposition. The Oligocene -Miocene SA3 carbonate shelf was similar to that of today under a progressively warming climate and ocean waters such that in the mid-Miocene sedimentation was nearly photozoan. The comparatively quiet AAG had evolved into the Southern Ocean by the Oligocene resulting in a much more active hydrodynamic marine system. Antarctica had become ice covered and glacioeustacy promoted extensive m-scale carbonate cyclicity. The Plio-Pleistocene SA4 shaved shelf developed because of active tectonism that is continuing today and resulted in a different sedimentary system dominated by marginal marine and slope carbonate deposition.

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  1. Kingston, ON, Canada

    Noel P. James

  2. Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Yvonne Bone

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James, N.P., Bone, Y. (2021). Integration and Interpretation. In: Biogenic Sedimentary Rocks in a Cold, Cenozoic Ocean. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63982-2_7

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