Conference Paper

Cross-bedded limestone facies on San Salvador Island, Bahamas: New perspective on eolian calcarenites

January 1989
AAPG Bulletin 73(8)

DOI:10.1306/44B4A30C-170A-11D7-8645000102C1865D

Conference: AAPG Bulletin

Authors:

Mario Vincent Caputo

Pacific Section SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology)

Limestones of eolian origin have been known from worldwide tropical regins since the early 1900s. On San Salvador Island, most of the exposed bed rock is Holocene and Pleistocene eolian calcarenite made of skeletal, peloidal, and oolitic fine to medium sand. The Pleistocene Grotto Beach Formation is composed of 50-90% ooids. An eolian interpretation for this interval is supported by paleosols, subaerial crusts, vadose cement, terrestrial fossils, karst features, associated reef and beach deposits, grainfall, sandflow, and climbing ripple strata, and shore-parallel sand bodies. Whole dune-forms are locally preserved; they were stabilized or frozen in place by early cementation and/or vegetation.

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Last Updated: 22 Oct 2024