Sunday, January 24, 2016

Papers- Geochemistry Of Carbonate Diagenesis

Aladin's cave has opened up! (behind pay wall)

This is for students and researchers in sedimentary geology and particularly those studying carbonate sediments. The journal Sedimentology has compiled a virtual collection of  papers from the past few decades on the geochemistry of various aspects of carbonate diagenesis ranging from impact of sea water composition and sea level changes on broad patterns of diagenesis to how crystal shapes and sizes are controlled by chemistry of fluids and micro-scale roughness of constituent sediment to oxygen and carbon isotope studies of grains and cements and what they tell us about the past groundwater systems and their interaction with rock material during sea level falls. I read some of these papers during my PhD research, especially some of the classic early work on stable isotope analysis of Pleistocence and Holocene carbonate sediments and rock from the Caribbean and the Bahamas.

One bad miss though - The Great Barrier Reef- A 700 000 Year Diagenetic History. I wrote a post on it some time back. It uses stable isotope and minor element analysis to understand how the Barrier Reef sediments have, through the Pleistocene, interacted with sea water and fresh water (during periodic sea level falls) and transformed in their physical and chemical composition. One can draw surprisingly broad inferences about the regional geological setting from chemical patterns imprinted in carbonate sediments, such as, the thickness and extent of groundwater systems, the paleo-topography, the paleo-climate and the role of surface vegetation in enhancing chemical reactions.

Diagenesis transforms sediment into rock. This is a great reference collection about this fundamental process of rock formation in carbonate environments.

10 comments:

  1. A treasure cove indeed! I read some of the papers of the collection, truly a must-read for anyone wanting to get into these topics. Also a good example of what good papers ought to look like, making me jealouse. The paper of Banner basicl is a daily reference to my current work!
    Cheers from the Lost Geologist. :)

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  2. yes! many of the papers including Banner were a great help to me during my PhD. I used them as a source for teaching too in my sedimentary petrology lab course. my only complaint... make the collection open access! Speaking from an Indian perspective, there are so many smaller Universities and colleges who can't afford journal subscription. These would come really handy to them as research and teaching aid.

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    1. Speaking from a global perspective,there are so many, too many, smaller Universities and colleges who can't afford journal subscription.

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    2. yes, it is disheartening that education budgets can't keep up with high journal fees.. more power to the open access movement!

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  3. Open access for such collections (at least) would be great! I do not have direct online access either. And I am at one of the largest and best known University of Germany. :(

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    1. crazy! how do students cope? Sedimentology is such a high profile journal!

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  4. Friends and colleagues... :) Recently, researchgate has also become a good place to ask authors directly. :)

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  5. We should link up there! Who knows what it'll be good for some day... How do I find you there?

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  6. oh sorry... i meant friends and colleagues.. I am not part of an institution so I haven't joined Researchgate, although I am on Academia.edu

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