Holocene carbonate tidal flats

Abstract

Carbonate tidal flats of the Bahamian archipelago and the Arabian Gulf have served as important analogs for interpreting and understanding ancient tidal flat systems. Geomorphic associations include well-zoned subtidal, intertidal, and supratidal environments and their deposits, each with distinctive associations of biota and biologic and physical sedimentary structures. Although they include broadly similar facies associations in each environment within and between tidal flats, the occurrence and distribution of specific facies across landscapes differs markedly between tidal flats. Depending on the details of climate, tidal amplitude, regional setting and energy level, Holocene carbonate tidal flats include systems penetrated by numerous sinuous channels with adjacent levees and ponds, areas with broad, flat progradational intertidal and supratidal plains, and regions with shorelines that appear to have abruptly stepped oceanward or eroded. Stratigraphically, each different type of tidal flat includes a shallowing-upward facies succession, although in many areas, a basal transgressive unit is present.