Climatic change: control of carbonate platform development (Eocene- Miocene, Leg 133, northeastern Australia)

Abstract

Most intraparticle porosity has been filled in with a planktonic foraminifer wackestone, but interparticle voids are empty. This textural inversion has been interpreted to indicate winnowing of sediment during lowstand of sea level. Cementation is virtually absent, except for large syntaxial overgrowths on echinoid spines and plates. In MF3, larger foraminifers and corallinacean algae are abundant. Because of the occurrence of few Halimeda and an extensive early marine cementation, we interpreted these deposits as "subtropical.' The vertical succession of climatically significant MF-types demonstrates late Oligocene cooling and early Miocene warming. -from Authors