Shallow-water ( Paleogene) carbonate sediments from the Emperor Seamounts: their diagenesis and paleogeographic significance.

Abstract

Drilling on 4 seamounts revealed that Paleogene shallow-water carbonate sediments of the 'bryozoan-algal' facies crown the basalt edifices. This assemblage suggests that the seamounts formed in cooler, more northerly waters i.e., the paleolatitudes of formation were greater than 200N. Moving southward toward the youngest member of the seamount chain, a facies gradient indicative of warmer waters was observed. This gradient is interpreted as a reflection of a northward shift in isotherms during the time span in which the seamounts were progressively formed. On all seamounts, sedimentation at the drilling sites occurred in a high-energy environment with water depths of c. 20 m. - from Authors