Developing Models and Analogs for Isolated Carbonate Platforms—Holocene and Pleistocene Carbonates of Caicos Platform, British West Indies

Developing Models and Analogs for Isolated Carbonate Platforms-Holocene and Pleistocene Carbonates of Caicos Platform, British West Indies - For the past 30 years, Caicos Platform has been an important area for studies of Holocene and Pleistocene carbonate successions and a destination for numerous geoscientists interested in learning about modern carbonate sedimentary systems. During the past few years there has been a renewed interest in understanding the geology of the platform, stemming in large part from recognition in the petroleum industry that more refined reservoir models of carbonate systems are needed both in exploration and development. The impetus for the workshop and the publication was a desire to bring together both present and past Caicos Platform workers with those not familiar with the Platform to share knowledge on the Holocene and Pleistocene Sedimentology, diagenesis, platform evolution, and the applicability of the platform as an analogue for ancient isolated carbonate platforms. This volume should serve as an intermediate-term documentation of research efforts and a spur for additional studies to better understand controls on sediment distribution, diagenesis, and the evolution of platform growth, furthering the Caicos Platform as an analogue for ancient, isolated, carbonate platforms.
Geomorphology and Sedimentology of Ambergris Ooid Shoal, Caicos Platform
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Published:January 01, 2008
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CiteCitation
Eugene C. Rankey, Stacy L. Reeder, Thiago B.S. Correa, 2008. "Geomorphology and Sedimentology of Ambergris Ooid Shoal, Caicos Platform", Developing Models and Analogs for Isolated Carbonate Platforms—Holocene and Pleistocene Carbonates of Caicos Platform, British West Indies, William A. Morgan, Paul M. (Mitch) Harris
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Abstract
Ambergris ooid shoal, on the southeastern Caicos platform, is an elongate, asymmetric, 20 km long spit-like feature to the west of Ambergris Cays. The purpose of this study is to describe the sedimentology and morphology of the Ambergris complex, commonly held as the type example of a wind-influenced ooid shoal.
The Ambergris shoal crest is bare well-sorted coarse sand-sized ooids, partly exposed at low tide and ornamented by low-amplitude sand waves with variable but systematically changing orientations. Flanking the shoal crest on the north side is a ~2 m deep rubbly shoulder of Holocene hardground and a deeper (~3...