Quaternary carbonate and evaporite sedimentary facies and their ancient analogues: A Tribute to Douglas James Shearman

478 Pages·2012·39.48 MB·English

QUATERNARY CARBONATE AND EVAPORITE SEDIMENTARY
FACIES AND THEIR ANCIENT ANALOGUES
Other publications of the International Association of Sedimentologists
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Special Publication Number 43 of the International
Association of Sedimentologists
Quaternary carbonate and evaporite sedimentary
facies and their ancient analogues
A Tribute to Douglas James Shearman
Edited by
Christopher G. St.C. Kendall
EarthandOceanSciences,UniversityofSouthCarolina,Columbia,SC29208USA
Abdulrahman S. Alsharhan
FacultyofScience,UAEUniversity,P.O.Box17551,Al-AinUnitedArabEmirates
SERIES EDITOR
Ian Jarvis
SchoolofGeography,GeologyandtheEnvironment
CentreforEarthandEnvironmentalScienceResearch
KingstonUniversityLondon
PenrhynRoad
KingstonuponThamesKT12EE
UK
SERIES CO-EDITOR
Tom Stevens
DepartmentofGeography
RoyalHolloway,UniversityofLondon
Egham,Surrey
TW200EX
UK
} }}
}
Thiseditionfirstpublished2011(cid:2)2011byInternationalAssociationofSedimentologists
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Quaternarycarbonateandevaporitesedimentaryfaciesandtheirancientanalogues:atributetoDouglasJamesShearman/
editedbyChristopherG.
St.C.KendallandAbdulrahmanAlsharhan.
p.cm. (Specialpublication;no.43)
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-4443-3910-9(hardback)
1.Carbonaterocks—PersianGulfCoast(PersianGulfStates) 2.Evaporites—PersianGulfCoast(PersianGulfStates)
3.Facies(Geology)—PersianGulfCoast(PersianGulfStates) 4.Geology,Stratigraphic—Quaternary.I.Shearman,Douglas
James,1918–2003.II.Kendall,ChristopherG.St.C.III.Alsharhan,A.S.
QE471.15.C3Q382010
552’.58–dc22
2010040513
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Thisbookispublishedinthefollowingelectronicformats:ePDF9781444392302;ePub9781444392319
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1 2011
Douglas James Shearman (1918–2003): Father of the sabkha model
Contents
Dedication v Facies stacking patternsin a modern arid
DouglasJames Shearman (1918–2003): environment:acasestudyoftheAbuDhabi
Father ofthe sabkhamodel ix sabkha in thevicinity ofAl-Qanatir Island,
Evans, G. United Arab Emirates 149
Strohmenger, C.J., Shebl, H.,
Introduction toQuaternary carbonate and Al-Mansoori, A., Al-Mehsin,K.,
evaporite sedimentaryfaciesand their Al-Jeelani,O., Al-Hosani, I.,Al-Shamry,
ancient analogues 1 A. and Al-Baker, S.
Alsharhan,A.S.andKendall,C.G.St.C.
Coastal and continental sabkhasof Barr Al
Part 1 Recent carbonate and evaporite Hikman,Sultanateof Oman 183
sediments Mettraux,M.,Homewood,P.W.,
Kwarteng,A.Y. and Mattner, J.
Anhistorical review of the
Quaternarysedimentology of theGulf Coastal Holocene carbonates of AbuDhabi,
(Arabian/Persian Gulf) andits geological UAE: depositionalsetting, sediment
impact 13 distribution, and roleof cyanobacteria
Evans, G. in micritization 205
Kendall,C.G.St.C.andAlsharhan,A.S.
Holocene geomorphologyand recent
carbonate-evaporite sedimentation ofthe Engineering properties of thecarbonate
coastalregion of AbuDhabi,UnitedArab sediments along the AbuDhabi coast,
Emirates 45 United Arab Emirates 221
Kendall,C.G.St.C.andAlsharhan,A.S. Epps, R.J.
The impact ofsea-levelchangeon ramp Part 2 Geochemistryof recent carbonate
margin deposition: lessonsfrom the and evaporite sediments
Holocene sabkhas ofAbu Dhabi,United
Arab Emirates 89 Anhistoricalodyssey: theoriginofsolutes
Park, R.K. in thecoastalsabkha ofAbu Dhabi,United
Arab Emirates 245
Holocene evolution ofArabiancoastal Wood, W.W.
sabkhas: are-evaluation based
on stable-isotope analysis, forty years Geochemistry and nature oforganicmatter
after Shearman’s first view of of thePleistocene–Holocene carbonate-
the sabkha 113 evaporite sedimentsofAl-Khiran,
Gunatilaka, A. southeastern Kuwait 255
Qabazard, S.,Abdullah, F.H. and
Interplaybetween Holocene sedimentation Al-Temeemi, A.
and diagenesis, and implications
forhydrocarbon exploitation:return Halite,sulphates,sabkhatandsalinasofthe
to thesabkhaof Ras Umm coastalregions and Sabkha Matti of Abu
Said, Qatar 133 Dhabi,United Arab Emirates 265
Shinn,E.A. Kirkham, A.
vii
viii Contents
Distribution oforganicmatter in the Salttectonics and structural styles
transgressiveand regressive Holocene of the western High Atlas and the
sabkha sedimentsof AbuDhabi, intersecting Essaouira-Cap
United Arab Emirates 277 Tafelneysegments ofthe
Kenig,F. Moroccan Atlantic margin 405
Hafid, M.,Bally,A.W.,Ait Salem, A
The roleof bacterial sulphate reduction in and Toto, E.
carbonate replacementof vanished
evaporites: examplesfrom theHolocene, Carbonates and evaporitesof the
Jurassic and Neoarchaean 299 Upper Jurassic Arab Formation,
Wright,D. and Kirkham, A. Abu Dhabi:a petroleumexploration
challenge 421
Part3 Ancientcarbonates and evaporites AlSuwaidi,A.S.,ElHami,M.,Hagiwara,
H., Aziz, S.K. and Al Habshi,A.R.
Evaporiticsource rocks: mesohaline
responses to cycles of‘‘famineor feast’’ Selenite facies inmarine evaporites:
in layered brines 317 a review 431
Warren, J.K. Ort(cid:2)ı, F.
Coupled passive extension and Index 465
compression on salt-based passive
margins analyzed by physical models 393
Costa, E., Cavozzi, C.and Doglioni,N.
Int.Assoc.Sedimentol.Spec.Publ.(2011)43,9–14
Douglas James Shearman (1918–2003): “The Father of the sabkha
model”
This volume is dedicated to the late Professor
Douglas Shearman, who is best remembered for
hisoutstandingresearchcontributionstounravel-
lingthenatureandoriginofthesabkhaevaporites
of the United Arab Emirates, and his recognition
that these were probably analogues for many an-
cient evaporite sequences.
DouglasJamesShearman(Figs.1and2)wasan
amazingly perceptive and innovative geologist
who showed remarkable courage and determina-
tiontoproselytisehisviews,bothtothegeological
community and to any others who crossed his
path. He was renowned for his all-embracing
burstsofenthusiasmforthelatestsubjectthathad
caught his attention. He would drag academics,
Fig.2. DouglasShearmanrecountingoneofhismanyad-
students and even cleaners into his room and
venturesto,asalways,anattentiveandamusedaudience.
lecturethemonproblemstheyneverknewexisted. ChristopherG.St.C.Kendallfourth,andAbdullahAl-Zamel
Douglas was born in Isleworth on 2 July 1918. fifthfromleft.Kuwait1986(photographcourtesyofProfe-
Before the Second World War, he trained and ssorClaudioVita-Finzi).
worked as a post-office engineer. His war service
was as a radio operator on a minesweeper on the
Arctic convoys to Russia with the British Royal
triggeredbymeetingasoldierandaterebratulidin
Navy.Hewaxedeloquentlyonepichourschipping
the Dover NAAFI canteen. After the war he grad-
ice off radio aerials. His interest in geology was
uated from Chelsea Polytechnic, that nursery of
many famous geologists, and obtained a post as
LecturerinSedimentologyintheGeologydepart-
mentofImperialCollege,London,wherehewasto
spend the rest of his professional life.
Douglasspent hisfirstelevenyearsinacademe
busilystudyingthestructuralgeologyandgeomor-
phologyofNorthDevon,UK.Hisresearchdemon-
strated that the en echelon offset of the West
Countrygraniteswastheresultofseriesoflateral
crustaltears.Thiswastohavebeensubmittedfora
PhD,buttheresearchwasnevercompleted.Itwas
typical of Shearman that this work was never
written up, neither as a thesis nor for wider pub-
lication;untilashortpaperappearedin1967.This
habit of solving one geological problem and leav-
ingitunpublishedtomoveontoanothertypified
his career. He worked as a consultant geologist a
Fig. 1. Douglas Shearman examining a section revealing
great deal, particularly in south-east England but
anhydrite showing a dish-form just beneath the surface
of the sabkha, Abu Dhabi, 1964 (photograph courtesy of alsoinAfrica,whereheworkedontheKaribadam
ChristopherG.St.C.Kendall). siteandinotherremotelocations.Inaddition,he
(cid:2)2011InternationalAssociationofSedimentologistsandpublishedforthembyBlackwellPublishingLtd ix
x DouglasJamesShearman(1918–2003):“TheFatherofthesabkhamodel”
supervised research students, unofficially, as he produced several papers describing the now fa-
didnothaveaPhDandthiscontravenedtherules mouscoastal sabkha evaporitesof Abu Dhabi.
oftheUniversityofLondonforsupervisorsatthat ThisstimulatedDouglasintoaninvestigationof
time.Thesestudents’researchworkwasondiverse variousancientevaporitedeposits:firstly,thoseof
topics including: Carboniferous limestones and thePurbeckoftheWarlinghamboreholeinsouth-
turbidites, Jurassic limestones, Cretaceous sands, eastEngland(Shearman,1966),laterwithstudies
Holocene intertidal-flat deposits and carbonates. in Canada with J. Fuller on the Middle Devonian
Duringtheseearlyyears,hehadlittleinterestin WinnepegosisFormation(Shearman&Fuller,1969),
carbonates and evaporites. In fact he never lec- and then more cursory studies on other famous
tured on the latter in his courses to undergradu- evaporite deposits of the geological column. He
ates,andtheteachingcollectionatImperialcon- nevermadeadetailedstudyofanyparticulardepos-
tainedonlyafewdrawersofratherdustysamples it except the Winnepegosis. Instead, he merely
ofrocksaltandgypsumcrystals.Douglas’interest picked the plums which supported his growing
in carbonates started with the arrival in the de- conviction (which later mellowed a little!) that all
partment of Derek Price, a mature student who evaporites were probably of a coastal plain origin!
workedontheYoredalecarbonatesofYorkshire. Hislackofwillingnesstoprovidedetailedcompre-
It developed further when Shearman became in- hensive descriptions of any succession led to the
volved in the supervision of some students en- remark of one of his assessors, when Douglas at-
gagedinastudyoftheMesozoiccarbonatesofthe temptedtoobtainpromotiontothestatusofReader
JuraMountains,France,whichhadbeeninitiated inGeologyintheUniversityofLondon:“thetrouble
andorganizedbyDerekAger.Thisledtoaseriesof is,Shearman,youhavenotproducedasinglemajor
papers on dedolomitization, a process that had paper for the Quarterly Journal of the Geological
hitherto not been recorded as occurring in sedi- Society of London”. Shearman had to wait several
mentaryrocks(Shearmanetal.,1961;Shearman& yearsforhispromotion!
Shirmohammadi, 1969). It is interesting to note that the discovery of
The study ofcarbonate rocks tookup more and modern anhydrite produced little interest in the
moreofhistimewiththeinitiationofaprogramme older establishment of the British oil industry.
of research into the Quaternary deposits of the Oneoftheseaskedthewriter:“Whyareyouchaps
Trucial Coast (now the United Arab Emirates, wasting the Government’s money studying the
UAE) in the early 1960s by the sedimentology sabkha and these coastal areas?” However,
sectionoftheGeologyDepartmentatImperial.At youngermembersofthegeologicalfraternitywere
thattime,thesitenowoccupiedbyAbuDhabiCity enthusedbythediscoveryanditsimplications,as
was a scorching coastal salt flat that extended for were researchers in the Shell Oil Company, The
severalkilometresfromlandtosea,andtheairport Netherlands.Shellhaditsowncarbonateresearch
was a bamboo “lean to” with a windsock. The groupwhichincludedBrucePurser,A.Wells,V.
opportunity to investigate modern carbonates al- Colter, P. Zeigler and Brian Evamy (one of
lowed him and his co-workers to develop, and at Shearman’s formerresearch students),aswellas
timestoconfirm,suggestionsthattheyhadmadein agroupofeminentAmericancarbonateandeva-
earlier papers, on the basis of studies of ancient porite specialists, including James Wilson, E.A.
carbonates, on limestone diagenesis (Skipwith & “Gene”ShinnandRaymondMurray.Thesescien-
Shearman, 1965; Evamy & Shearman, 1969; tists were very supportive, and after a series of
Shearman etal.,1970). lectures by Shearman and the writer, gave the
His interest in evaporites, one which was to Imperial group what was in those days, a hand-
occupyeverymomentofhislaterlife,startedwhen somedonationtotheirresearchbudget.TheTru-
herealizedthatsomescatteredcrystalsinthewash cial Coast project had been funded originally by
of asamplecollectedby DavidKinsman from the the Department of Science and Industrial
edge of the saline coastal plain (the sabkha) were Research(nowNERC)andShelloilcompanyand
anhydrite.Heimmediatelyrecognizedthesignifi- was later supported by Socony-Mobil Dallas
cance of this discovery, and in the following (Henry Nelson and Volkmar Schmidt of that
years pursued this discovery and its significance company participated in the drilling of the first
(Shearman,1965,1966).Heandhisco-workersP. line across the sabkha plain that revealed the
R. Bush, G. Butler, G. Evans, D.J.J. Kinsman, C.G. history of the development of this interesting
St.C.KendallandSirP.A.d’EstotevilleSkipwith, feature).
DouglasJamesShearman(1918–2003):“TheFatherofthesabkhamodel” xi
In1965,Shearmanastoundedthegeologicalfra- the USA to examine the tufa mounds of the Lake
ternity and produced cries of disbelief from the LahotanandMonoLakeBasins,whichheandhis
gurusoftheevaporites,withhisaudaciousclaims co-workers claimed were originally formed of
that they had all misinterpreted ancient evaporite ikaite but had later been replaced by calcite
deposits, and that the hypothesized evaporating- (Shearman et al., 1989).
dishoriginofthesewasincorrect.Instead,hesug- Whilst Shearman was not always the origina-
gested that the classical evaporite sequence, to- tor, rather sometimes reviving interest in earlier
getherwithitsfrequentreplacementtextures,was ignored or forgotten views, and was occasionally
the result of the deposition of a pile of carbonate- incorrect in some of his suggestions on the origin
gypsum/anhydritesabkhasediments,andthesub- of evaporites, he will always be remembered for
sequentupwardexpulsionoftheconnatebrinesto his persuasive skill as a teacher and lecturer,
produce mineralogical changes whilst leaving the with his beautifully drafted figures, and as the
lower part unaltered. He developed this thesis in initiator of the re-examination of these deposits.
his most famous paper (Shearman, 1966, and dis- His impact was considerable, and led to him
cussion, 1967) in which he introduced the term being appointed as the first Professor of
“sabkhameasures”.AfteravisittoBajaCalifornia, Sedimentology at Imperial College in 1978, and
thiswasextendedtoincludelayeredhalitedepos- being awarded the Lyell Fund (1967), the Lyell
itsandtheirchevron-typehabit;these,heshowed, Medal (1984) and the Wollaston Medal (1997) of
werenotindicativeofdeepwater,thussupporting the Geological Society of London, the Matson
theearlierconclusionsofHolliday(1967).Inaddi- Award (1971) of the American Association of
tion, he argued that individual salt layers did not Petroleum Geologists, and the Geological Asso-
alwaysrepresentannuallayers,thussupportingthe ciation of Canada Medal (1999). Above all, he
earlierdenialofthisbyPhleger(1969). will always be remembered by former collea-
Douglas became intrigued, together with two gues, students and acquaintances for his un-
Canadianresearchstudents,bytheevidencepro- bounded enthusiasm and skill as an articulate
videdbygypsumveinsofhydraulicfracturingin exponent of his views, and his bottomless fund
thesubsurface(Shearmanetal.,1972,1973),and of entertaining stories of his escapades in the
laterbythechangesofgypsumfabricsduringthe Royal Navy during the Second World War, and
exhumationofevaporiticrocks(Mossop&Shear- others from his earlier travels.
man, 1973). Acceptance of his theories was fol- As his old student Dick Selley remarked “an
lowed by academic recognition. Shearman was account of Shearman’s academic achievements
awardedaDSc,andthenapersonalChairbythe tells little of his character. He was unforgettable,
University of London (1978). One of his final eccentric, charming, frustrating to administrators
papersonsabkhaevaporiteswaswrittenwithhis who required forms filled in. Generations of stu-
old friend and colleague Amanda Gunatilaka, dentsworshippedhim.Hehadaspecialsoftspotfor
whenhewasavisitingprofessorintheUniversity overseasstudents.Shearmanhadapuckishsense
of Kuwait. They described some laminated gyp- of humour, a delight in practical jokes, and an
sum-carbonatedepositsfromanephemeralchan- abilitytoattractunforeseenevents.Whenwrongly
nelonthesabkha(Gunatilaka&Shearman,1988). convictedofsomenavalmisdemeanourhewasset
Itwasanattempttoanswersomeofhiscriticswho to paint the ship’s funnel. This he did - complete
claimedthathehadneverdemonstratedthepre- with black swastika. The Israeli army shot up his
sence of laminated evaporites in an intertidal- tent when he was working for the UN looking for
supratidal setting. waterinJordan.Fortunatelyhewasoutatthetime.”
Later, Douglas became fascinated by the cur- Further and more detailed information on
ious mineral ikaite(CaCO (cid:2)6H O)andsupervised Douglas Shearman’s life and people’s apprecia-
3 2
work on this in the Greenland fjords, as well as tion of him can be found in Bush (2003),
writingareviewoftheoccurrencesofthisminer- Evans (2003, 2005) and Selley (2003).
alanditsvariouslynamedpseudomorphs(Shear-
man & Smith, 1985). Subsequently, he and a Graham Evans
colleague carried out some laboratory studies on
the formation of this mineral (Shaikh & Shear- National Oceanography Centre, Southampton,
man, 1986). His last episode of fieldwork was in UK,andformerlyofImperialCollege,London,UK.