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Submarine Lithification

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Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Synonyms

Submarine Cementation

Definition

Submarine lithification is a process by which coral-reef structures and associated sediments are lithified in their marine setting by the precipitation of submarine cements.

Introduction

Little was known about this process of submarine lithification in modern coral reefs until the 1960s when first reports of submarine lithification were published from reefs off Barbados (Macintyre, 1967; Macintyre et al., 1968) and off Bermuda (Ginsburg et al., 1967). This was shortly followed by the 1969 Bermuda Conference on Carbonate Cements that brought together a major gathering of carbonate geologists to describe a variety of carbonate cements from both modern and fossil deposits with a focus on submarine lithification in modern coral reefs (Bricker et al., 1969). Subsequently, the phenomenon was more widely documented, notably in the reefs off Jamaica (Land and Goreau, 1970; Land and Moore, 1980), Bermuda (Ginsburg et al., 1971a, 1971b; Shinn, 1971;...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 37012, 20013-7012, Washington, WA, USA

    Ian G. Macintyre

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  1. Ian G. Macintyre
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. James Cook University, Townsville, Australia

    David Hopley

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Macintyre, I.G. (2011). Submarine Lithification. In: Hopley, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2639-2_28

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