Carbonate eolianites, quartz sands, and Quaternary sea-level cycles, Western Australia: A chronostratigraphic approach

Abstract

Marine and eolian carbonate deposits, grouped under the name “Tamala Limestone”, have been investigated along thousands of kilometers of coastal Western Australia (WA). Relative-age diagenetic features of carbonate sand dunes or “eolianites” indicate that coastal ridges decrease in age seaward, reflecting coastal accretion during successive sea-level stands. Yellow- to red-stained quartz sands are associated with eolianites as pits, lenses, extensive beds, and even 40-m-high dunes.A regional survey using whole-rock and land snail amino acid epimerization geochronology confirms the eolianite succession and provides a means of correlating widespread deposits along a steep climatic gradient and 16° of latitude. AMS 14C and uranium–thorium (U/Th) ages provide independent radiometric calibration of the amino acid ratios, and eolianite ages can be estimated using a parabolic kinetic model.Over 90% of the sampled eolianite deposits comprise Aminozones A, C, E (125 ka), F?, G, and H, and correlate with interglacials from <10 ka (Holocene) to ca. 500 ka. In contrast, at the type locality of the Tamala Limestone along the Zuytdorp Cliffs, the upper eolianite-paleosol units are characterized by advanced stages of cavernous weathering, pedogenesis, and recrystallization. In the same units, sediment and snail samples generally yield very low or non-detectable levels of amino acids. These factors along with the stratigraphic complexity of the deposits reflect an age much greater than a large majority of sites along the WA coastline. These findings encourage a revision of the existing classification and nomenclature of Quaternary carbonate deposits in WA, as well as a reexamination of the underlying mechanisms related to the formation and emplacement of both carbonate and quartz dunes.