Formation and Diagenesis of Carbonate Sediments

TLDR: The first edition of this chapter provided a brief review of the geochemistry of carbonate minerals, summarized general aspects of their thermodynamics and the kinetics of their precipitation and dissolution, and then used the natural division between deep-sea marine carbonates (chalks and pelagic muds) versus shoal-water carbonates to organize details of the formation, distribution, and subsequent diagenetic alteration of these phases as mentioned in this paper.

Abstract: The first edition of this chapter provided a brief review of the geochemistry of carbonate minerals, summarized general aspects of their thermodynamics and the kinetics of their precipitation and dissolution, and then used the natural division between deep-sea marine carbonates (chalks and pelagic muds) versus shoal-water carbonates (skeletal and nonskeletal materials) to organize details of the formation, distribution, and subsequent diagenetic alteration of these phases. A substantial focus in this treatment was thus the description of the behavior and fate of carbonate minerals in natural settings. In this chapter, this latter material appears largely unchanged. The aim in this revision is not simply to trudge through calcite, dolomite, and magnesite rate equations, detailed reviews of which are available elsewhere; instead, the intent is to provide background for the selective discussion of recent work on carbonate mineral surfaces (mostly calcite).