Noel P. James – författare

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This book documents and interprets the onshore Cenozoic temperate carbonate depositional system along the southern margin of Australia.  These strata, deposited in four separate basins, together with the extensive modern marine system offshore, comprise the largest such cool-water carbonate system on the globe.  The approach is classic and comparative but the information is a synthesis of recent research and new information.  A brief section of introduction outlines the setting, modern comparative sedimentology offshore, and structure of the Cenozoic onshore.  The core of the book is a detailed analysis and illustration of the four Eocene to Pleistocene successions.   Deposits range from temperate carbonates, to biosiliceous spiculites, to marginal marine siliciclastics.  Each unit is interpreted, as much as possible, based on our understanding of the modern offshore depositional system.  A subsequent part concentrates on diagenesis both before and after the late Miocene uplift.  It turns out that alteration in the two packages is entirely different.   The preceding attributes of each succession are then interpreted on the basis of controlling factors such as tectonics, oceanography, climate, and glaciation of nearby Antarctica.  This research has revealed new implications for the interpretation of specific attributes of cool-water carbonate sedimentology that could only be discovered from the rock record.  Insights concerning cyclicity, reef mounds, biosiliceous deposition, and trophic resources are detailed in the next section.  The concluding part focuses on global comparisons, especially the Mediterranean and New Zealand.

This book is the first comprehensive documentation and interpretation of modern neritic carbonate sediments on the southern Australian continental margin, the largest cool-water carbonate depositional system on the globe. The approach is classical but the information is new.  A brief chapter of introduction is followed by a section that describes the setting of the continental margin in terms of the regional geology, its evolution through time, the climate, and the complex oceanography. The setting is further explored in chapter 3 that outlines the Pleistocene history of sedimentation in this region. This is particularly important since many of the surficial sediments have a partial older history. The following section on the carbonate factory describes in detail the nature of the animals and plants that determine the nature of the sediments and the environmental conditions that control their distribution. The shelf itself cannot be discussed in isolation and thus a short chapter on the marginal marine environment is presented. The core of the book comprises two chapters that document the suite of depositional facies and their composition and then the suite of depositional environments where these sediments are found. The variety of deposits in this vast area is such that three chapters are devoted to the character of the materials on the southwestern shelf the south Australian sea and the southeastern shelf. The diagenesis that affects these sediments is tackled in a chapter after all the attributes are documented because they are intimately linked to different controls. The book finishes with a summary chapter that also addresses the various controls on sedimentation and models the effects to be expected when these are changed outside those present in the current realm. 

Audience: The book is an invaluable source of information about this vast region and will be a critical reference forresearchers, graduate students, and professionals engaged in marine and environmental research. It will be of particular importance for geologists interpreting the ancient rock record.