Abstract
Geochemical characterization and numerical modelling of surface water and ground water, combined with hydrological observations, provide quantitative estimates of meteoric diagenesis in Pleistocene carbonates of the northern Bahamas.
Meteoric waters equilibrate with aragonite, but water‐ rather than mineral‐controlled reactions dominate. Dissolutional lowering of the undifferentiated bedrock surface is an order of magnitude slower than that within soil‐filled topographic hollows, generating small‐scale relief at a rate of 65–140 mm ka^−1^ and a distinctive pocketed topography. Oxidation of organic matter within the subsoil and vadose zones generates an average P of 4·0 × 10^−3^ atm, which drives dissolution during vadose percolation and/or at the water table. However, these dissolution processes together account for <60% of the average rock‐derived calcium in groundwaters pumped from the freshwater lens. The additional calcium may derive from oxidation of organic carbon within the lens, accounting for the high P of the lens waters. Mixing between meteoric waters of differing chemistry is diagenetically insignificant, but evapotranspiration from the shallow water table is an important drive for subsurface cementation.
Porosity generation in the shallow vadose zone averages 1·6–3·2% ka^−1^. Phreatic meteoric diagenesis is focused near the water table, where dissolution generates porosity at 1·4–2·8% ka^−1^. Maximum dissolution rates, however, are similar to those of evaporation‐driven precipitation, which occludes porosity of 4·0 ± 0·6% ka^−1^. This drives porosity inversion, from primary interparticle to secondary mouldic, vug and channel porosity. In the deeper freshwater lens, oxidation of residual organic carbon and reoxidation of reduced sulphur species from deeper anaerobic oxidation of organic carbon may generate porosity up to 0·06% ka^−1^.
Meteoric diagenesis relies critically on hydrological routing and vadose thickness (controlled by sea level), as well as the geochemical processes active. A thin vadose zone permits direct evaporation from the water table and drives precipitation of meteoric phreatic cements even where mineral stabilization is complete. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.