Highlights—Tethyan Cretaceous Dolomite

Although dolomitic strata can form expansive and prolific reservoirs, dolomitization of shallow-water carbonates of the southern Tethyan platform is extremely rare. This study by Sena et al. seeks to evaluate “why” by assessing the processes of early dolomitization and the controls on the dolomite bodies distribution in the Lower Cretaceous Arabian carbonate platform. Integrating clumped isotopes, geochemistry, and isotopes in a framework of petrography and field observations, the results indicate early dolomite facilitated by the presence of microbial mats was re-equillibrated at shallow burial depths. They suggest that the study has implications on the definition of predictive rules on early dolomite occurrences this platform and on epeiric carbonate platforms in general.

Dolomitization of Lower Cretaceous peritidal carbonates by modified seawater: constraints from clumped isotopic paleothermometry, elemental chemistry, and strontium isotopes by Claire M. Sena, Cedric M. John, Anne-Lise Jourdan, Veerle Vandeginste, and Christina Manning