CHAPTER 3

DEPOSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS, FACIES AND FACIES MODELS

FOR CARBONATE RAMPS.
Morphology and facies zones.
Carbonate ramps are gently sloping carbonate shelves with no major break of slope
(Fig. 3.1). They pass gradually from shorelines to deep marine basins at slopes of less than 1o.
Carbonate facies pass gradually from peritidal and nearshore facies, through deeper shelf facies
to basinal facies. Because of the gentle slope vertical sections through ramps will show gradual
transitions, and interfingering from one facies belt to another.
The major recent review of ramp depositional systems is by Burchette and Wright
(1992) and Aigner (1985) contains important data on Recent and ancient ramps. The special
publication of the Geological Society entitled carbonate ramps (Wright and Burchette, 1998)
is the first volume to be dedicated to the study of ramps and contains case studies of modern and
ancient ramps, computer modelling and the ecology of ramp systems.
A ramp may be divided into inner, mid and outer zones based on the location of fair
weather and storm weather wave base (Fig. 3.1).

Figure 3.1 Generalised sedimentary

environments and facies model for a
carbonate ramp showing definition and
characteristics of inner, mid, and outer ramp
environments.
(from Bosence and Wilson 2003, after
Burchette and Wright, 1992)

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Inner Ramp.
Inner ramp zones are above fair weather wave base and the continual reworking and
winnowing of sediment will lead to grain supported sediments such as packstones and
grainstones. Uni or bidirectional tidal currents may also be important. Storm and fair weather
conditions may lead to the onshore transport of sand to form beaches and barriers. These will
have similar sturctures and sequences to their siliciclastic counterparts. The main difference will
be in the range of grain composition from bioclasts to peloids to ooid sands all of which may be
cemented into beachrock in the intertidal zone or hardgrounds in the shallow subtidal.
Depending on the exposure and maturity of the inner ramp area the shoreline may have the
morphology of barriers, tidal flats and lagoons, or fringing beaches and sand shoals, or a
strandplain of beach ridges and swales (depressions). Patch reefs may also occur in suitable
inner ramp settings.
Facies will be plane bedded/laminated shoreface bioclastic grainstones/ packstones
grainstones, cross bedded bioclastic or ooid grainstones with or without beachrocks in exposed
sites. In sheltered areas burrowed lagoonal wackestones or mudstones and peritidal facies may
predominate. The nature of the latter being largely controlled by climatic setting as is
demonstrated by comparing the humid Everglades swamps of the eastern Gulf of Mexico ramp
and the sabkha of the arid Arabian Gulf ramp (below).

Figure 3.2 Homoclinal ramp main sedimentary facies of inner (A-peritidal sabkha, B- bioturbated
lagoonal mud-wackestones, C- Shoal/shoreface cross bedded grainstones), mid (D- amalgamated
proximal tempestites) and outer (E-diutal tempestites with mudstones) ramp zones of Burchette and
Wright (1992).

Mid Ramp.
The mid ramp environment experiences temporally fluctuating energy levels as it is
located below fair weather wave base and above storm wave base. Fair weather conditions will
give rise to shelf bioclastic or peloidal wackestones and packstones with a diverse shelly fossils
and ichnofauna. These beds may be reworked by storms to produce graded shallow marine
storm beds (Figs. 3.2-3) with erosional bases asnd massive or hummocky cross stratified sands.
Bed tops may be plane laminated or cross laminated and reworked by waning storm waves.
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Depending on the direction of storm approach storms may either transport sediment shoreward
or basinward; in which case shallow water grains (e.g. ooids) may be reworked into mid ramp
storm beds. With ramp progradation and shallowing the frequency of storm beds should increase
up section as documented by Aigner (1985).

Figure 3.3 Sedimentological characteristics of shallow marine clastic storm beds (Boggs 1995)

Outer Ramp.
The outer ramp facies will be dominated by bioclastic or peloidal wackestones and
laminated mudstones reflecting the quiet hydrodynamic conditions of this setting. Thin fine
grained storm beds may be present as occasional storms supply reworked coarser debris. These
facies will pass downslope to deep basinal muds which may have a significant pelagic or
terrestrial component.
Ramp Case Study: southern Arabian Gulf.
The Arabian Gulf (Fig.3.4) is a marine foreland basin created by loading during
deformation of the Zagros Mountains of Iran. The steep northern margin is dominated by clastic
sediments and marls derived from erosion of the Zagros Mountains but the lower relief southern
margin of the Gulf Coast States is a fine example of a present day carbonate ramp (Purser 1973).
The prevailing winds are onshore from the north and because of the restricted opening to the
Indian Ocean through the Straits of Hormuz and the arid climate setting salinities are elevated in
the Gulf to 40-45%0.

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The basin is not very deep (<100m) and marls with a pelagic component represent the
basinal facies. The wave base is around 10-20 m and above this molluscan wackestones and
packstones are found. Areas of clean bioclastic sand are found in inner ramp environments and
these are commonly cemented on the seafloor to produce extensive hardgrounds (Shinn, 1969).

Figure 3.4 Carbonate sediment distribution of the southern Arabian Gulf. (a) Generalised facies zones.
(b) Cross section (North to South) showing depth profile and facies on ramp; (c) Sediment distribution
associated with barrier islands and lagoons in the Abu Dhabi (from Bosence and Wilson 2003).

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Figure 3.5 Landsat TM view of the southern Arabian Gulf showing coastal plain (with beach ridges),
lagoons and barrier islands. Ooid sand shoals and tidal channels are imaged well in shallow waters
around barrier islands. Small dark patches offshore main tombola (island joined to mainland) are coral
reefs (aledgedly..). From Harris and Kowalik, 1994.

Small patch reefs (Figure 3.5, 3.6a) occur with a low diversity coral fauna because of the
elevated salinity and sometimes low winter temperatures.
The inner ramp is dominated by skeletal sand beaches or ooid barriers in the Abu Dhabi
area. Aragonitic ooids are forming today in the relatively high salinity marine waters with a
moderate tidal and wave energy regime. Ooid barriers (Fig. 3.5) are up to 20 km away from the
shoreline sabkhas and broad shallow lagoons have developed (Fig. 3.4c). The ooid shoals are cut
by tidal channels which lead out into ebb and flood ooid sand deltas.
The lagoons have elevated salinities of 40 to 50%0 and as such have reduced marine
faunas of cerithiid gastropods and ostracods in peloidal wackestones. Tidal channels cut down to
the lithified Pleistocene limestone and have a lag of lithoclasts, shelly material and peloids. The
lagoonal muds are aragonitic and the absence of codiacean algae and the presence of compelling
geochemical evidence of high strontium levels (Kinsman and Holland 1969) both lead to the
conclusion that these muds are precipitating from the lagoon waters.

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Figure 3.6 Sedimentary facies of the inner ramp of the southern Arabian Gulf. (a) Coral patch reef
with surrounding skeletal gravels and sands; (b) Ooid sand beach on barrier island ; (c) View across
sabkha that has been recently flooded; (d) Microbial mats showing laminae and desiccation cracks; (e)
Domed stromatolites built up from alternating microbial and sediment rich layers; (f) Pit dug into
supratidal sabkha revealing fine-grained anhydrite with the texture of cottage cheese precipitated within
pre-existing carbonate sediments (Photos Roger Till).

The sabkhas are broad (up to 10km across) coastal plains which may be flooded by storm
driven lagoon waters (Fig. 3.4-6). Intertidal areas have extensive filamentous and coccoid
microbial populations on the tidal flats which, together with sediment flooding by storms give
rise to algal laminites and domed stromatolites (Fig. 3.6 c-e). Erosion of stromatolites produces

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microbial clasts that can continue to grow as they are transported. Such carbonate grains are
called oncoids and are common in the geological record (Fig. 3.7).

Figure 3.7 Oncoids from

present day sabkha (left)
and from Middle Jurassic
limestones, Dorset, UK
(right, lens cap for scale)

High aridity in the area leads to a net evaporation of flood waters together with the drawing up
of saline groundwaters into the sabkha and the precipitation of evaporite minerals dolomite,
gypsum and anhyrite (Fig. 3.6f, 3.8). The dolomite is concentrated around channel margins and
occurs as poorly ordered Ca rich dolomite with
180 values of +2%0 indicating an evaporative
origin. Gypsum crystals grow vertically within the algal mats and are soon converted to white
anhydrite nodules or chicken wire anhydrite (Fig. 3.8). This is a commonly recognised ancient
facies that has specific environmental significance of ancient sabkha environments (Fig. 3.9).
Other less common evaporite minerals are halite, celestite and magnesite (Bush 1973).

Figure 3.8 Hole excavated in sabkha down to previous (dark) microbial laminite. Light brown sediment
above is largely composed of a mush of gypsum crystals. Nodular anhydrite (right) develops from
gypsum through dehydration.

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Figure 3.9
Ancient examples of nodular anhydrite from outcropping Triassic (UK, left) and from
core late Jurassic Arab Formation (Qatar, right)

Because of the short period of time since marine flooding of this margin there has been
little development of stratigraphic section. However progradation rates are high as 4.500 BP
sediments are found some 6.5 km in from the present day shoreline and it is therefore expected
that a shallowing upward sequence from outer to mid to inner ramp facies would eventually
develop in this area capped by subaerial exposure of the sabkha surface.

Ramp cycles and facies models.

In common with many shallow water carbonate environments ramps produce sediment at
rates greater than subsidence rates so that shallowing upward cycles develop. In their extensive
review of carbonate ramps Burchette and Wright (1992) document a number of end member
ramp shallowing upward sequences which recur within the geological record (Fig.3.10).
Read (1985) described a large number of ramp facies models but these have been
sensibly distilled into two models by Tucker and Wright (1990) illustrated in figure 3.11. The
homoclinal ramp, as described above, represents a gently sloping shelf from peritidal through to
deep basinal facies with or without shallow ramp or downslope buildups. The distally steepened
ramp will have an outer, deep water redeposited ramp facies associated with local steepening of
the shelf. This slope may originate from a drowned rimmed shelf (e.g. Blake Plateau, Bahamas
or from syndepositional faulting of the offshore shelf.

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Figure 3.10 Schematic logs through various end-member ramp deposits indicating facies evolution
from outer through to inner ramp environments. A) Proterozoic microbialite dominated ramp, B)
Paleozoic-Mesozoic skeletal dominated ramp, C) Carbonaiferous or Jurassic ooid grainstone dominated
ramp, D) Tertiary large foraminifera dominated ramp
(from Burchette and Wright 1992).

Figure 3.11 Reads (1985) models for

homoclinal and distally steepened ramps
(from Tucker and Wright 1990). Note
large vertical exaggeration in sketches.

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References.
Aigner, T. (1985) Storm depositional systems. Dynamic stratigraphy in modern and ancient
shallow-marine sequences. Lecture notes in Earth Sciences, 3, Springer-Verlag,
Berlin,174 pp.
Burchette, T.P. & Wright, V.P. (1992) Carbonate ramp depositional systems. Sediment. Geol.
79, 3-57.
Bush, P. (1973) Some aspect of the diagenetic history of the sabkha in Abu Dhabi, Persian Gulf.
In The Persian Gulf ed. B.H. Purser, Springer Verlag, 395-407.
Harris, P. and Kowalik, W. (1994) Satellite Images of Carbonate Depositional Settings.
AAPG Methods in Exploration Series 11, 147 pp.
Kinsman, D.J. and Holland, C.D. (1969) The co-precipitation of cations with CaCO3 IV: The
co-precipitation of Sr with aragonite between 160 and 960C. Geochim. Cosmochim.
Acta 33, 1-17.
Purser, B. H. (1973) The Persian Gulf; Holocene carbonate sedimentation, and diagenesis in a
shallow epicontinental sea. Springer Verlag, 471pp.
Read J. F. (1985) Carbonate platform facies models. Bull. Am. Ass. Petrol. Geol. 66, 860-878.
Tucker, M.E. & Wright, V.P. (1990) Carbonate Sedimentology. Blackwell Scient.. Publ.,
Oxford-London, 482 pp.
Wright, V.P. and Burchette, T.P. (Eds. ) (1998) Carbonate ramps. Special Publication of the
Geological Society of London, 149, 465pp.

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