Clastics vs Carbonates

• Since skeletal remains of organisms furnish most of the

sediments deposited in carbonate environments, the grain
composition of carbonate sediments and rocks often directly
reflects their environment of deposition because of the
general lack of transport in carbonate regimens and the direct
tie to the biological components of the environment.
• The ability to determine the identity of the organism from
which a grain originates by its distinctive and unique
ultrastructure is the key to the usefulness of grain
composition for environmental reconstruction in ancient
carbonate rock sequences.
 Clastics vs Carbonates
• In contrast, grain composition in siliciclastics is related to the
origin provenance of the sediment, climate, and stage of tectonic
development of the source, rather than to conditions at the site
of deposition.
• Once formed, carbonate sediments not bound by organisms
react to physical processes of transport and deposition in the
same manner as their siliciclastic counterparts.
Carbonate Classification
 Different Schemes
• Folk’s classification is more detailed, encompassing a textural
scale that incorporates grain size, roundness, sorting, and
packing, as well as grain composition.
• The complexity of the Folk classification makes it more
applicable for use with a petrographic microscope.
• Dunham’s classification, on the other hand, is primarily
textural in nature, is simple, and is easily used in the field.
 Major Constituents
• Allochems: Not single crystals but are composite grains
made up of large numbers of small calcite or aragonite
crystals.
• Intraclasts: originate within a depositional basin by fragmentation
of penecontemporaneous, commonly weakly cemented, carbonate
sediment.
• Oolite: individual carbonate grains.
• Fossils: Organic remains.
• Pellets: well-rounded, symmetrical shapes, are thought to be of
fecal origin.
• Microcrystalline ooze: a contraction for microcrystalline
calcite.
• Sparry calcite cement: large (0.02–0.1 mm) compared to
micrite crystals and appear clear or white under
microscope.
Dunham’s Classification
 Porosity in Carbonates
• Pore systems in carbonates are much more complex than
siliciclastics.
• This is due to overwhelming biological origin of carbonate
sediments that results in porosity within grains, growth
framework porosity within reefs, and the common
development of secondary porosity due to pervasive diagenetic
processes such as solution and dolomitization affecting the
more chemically reactive carbonates throughout their burial
history.