Temperate shelf carbonate sediments in the Cenozoic of New Zealand
Authors: NELSON CAMPBELL S. 
Published: June 2006

Shelf limestones are widely distributed in New Zealand Cenozoic sequences and are especially well developed in the Oligocene. Detailed field and laboratory work on several Oligocene occurrences, and reconnaissance field‐work at most other sections have elucidated the major characteristics of the environment, texture, composition and diagenesis of these sediments. Several generalizations emerge which contrast with the commonly accepted characteristics of shallow marine carbonate sedimentation established from studies of tropical and subtropical deposits.

The limestones are either calcarenites or, less commonly, calcilutites and, in general, these two lithologies are mutually exclusive, both in time and space. The allochems and interparticle carbonate mud (where developed) in calcarenitic limestones consist almost exclusively of fragmented skeletal material derived primarily from bryozoan, echinodermal, benthic foraminiferal, barnacle, brachiopod, bivalve and coralline red algal tests. The calcilutitic limestones consist mainly of whole and disintegrated tests of pelagic foraminifers and coccolithophorids. Non‐skeletal carbonate components such as ooids, pellets and aggregates are conspicuously absent from both lithologies. Reefal structures are also absent or rare and are mainly oyster reefs.

The limestones commonly contain a significant content of terrigenous material and/or glauconite and at the stratigraphic level the limestones are intimately associated with terrigenous formations. The distribution of the carbonate sediments has been governed mainly by rate of supply of river‐derived terrigenous material, by subsequent dispersal patterns of this material over the shelf, and by current sorting. As a consequence of selective grain transport, bedding in the limestones is often defined by the cyclic alternation on a wide range of scales of carbonate units that are relatively enriched and relatively impoverished in terrigenous material.

The primary (carbonate) mineralogy of the carbonate sediments was completely dominated by magnesium calcite and/or calcite with only small amounts of aragonite and no dolomite or associated evaporite minerals. The metastable magnesium calcite and aragonite grains were probably altered on, or close below, the shallow sea‐floor. Among other factors, transformation was encouraged by the absorption of magnesium in pore waters by montmorillonitic clays and by the complete oxidation of all organic matter in the bottom sediments. Magnesium calcite grains were stabilized by texturally non‐destructive incongruent dissolution, but aragonite was often dissolved without trace from the sediment, especially in grainstones. Thus submarine diagenesis has been characterized by selective dissolution phenomena.

Cementation by granular and syntaxial rim orthosparite of calcite and/or ferroan calcite composition occurred mainly during shallow subsurface burial and was associated with the intergranular solution of calcitic skeletal fragments, especially at those levels in the sediment relatively enriched in terrigenous material. This lithification process has worked to accentuate and modify original litho‐logic differences and sedimentary structures in the primary sediments and has produced a kind of rhythmic vertical alternation of less well cemented, microstylolitized, impure limestone beds (‘cement‐donor’ beds) and well cemented, more open textured, purer limestone beds (‘cement‐receptor’ beds).

The New Zealand limestones formed between latitudes 60° S and 35° S under generally cool temperate to warm temperate climate conditions. Oxygen isotopes suggest that surface waters were mainly significantly cooler than 20°C, so that shelf waters may have experienced extended periods of undersaturation with respect to calcium carbonate. Generally open circulation patterns maintained near normal salinity values over the entire shelf platform. Calculated sedimentation rates for the New Zealand carbonate sediments are generally very low (< 5 cm/1000 years). Periods of more active deposition commonly alternated with longer periods of non‐deposition and by‐passing or erosion. It is concluded that many characteristics of the New Zealand shelf limestone occurrences are explained best by a temperate latitude model of shallow marine carbonate sedimentation.