The first 25 years of satellite carbonate sedimentology: What have we learned?

Abstract

Earth observing satellites offer a way of viewing large-scale, high-volume transport events (storms) in global carbonate systems as well as monitoring the quiescent intervals between events. In particular, the processes leading to the facies transitions seen from bank top to deep slope are revealed in a way not seen before. In this paper we provide, for the first time, a comprehensive discussion on the large-scale transport processes dominating this interval in examples from the western Tropical Atlantic, the northern shelf of Australia and the carbonate plateaus of the Coral Sea. Our findings indicate that (a) tropical cyclones are the dominant transport mechanism that transports carbonate sediments to the deep sea, particularly fine-grained sediments; (b) the largest carbonate sediment transport events occur when tropical cyclones interact with shallow carbonate shelves; and (c) sufficient observations have taken place in this period to allow the compilation of preliminary regional climatologies to estimate storm impact and frequency. The recently achieved unprecedented current state of satellite remote sensing, combined with focused research efforts, can enable markedly improved quantification of this important aspect of oceanic carbonate production, deposition and dissolution.