Abstract Introduction Background Methods Seismic Sequences Discussion - Depositional Events - Siliciclastic Conveyor > Siliciclastic Influence Conclusions & Acknowledgments References Tables PDF Version

Key controls on development of carbonate platforms are plate motion, subsidence, sea-level change, climate, and oceanographic factors. However, numerous authors have also shown that the interplay of siliciclastic and carbonate deposition can be critical in the initiation and expansion of ancient carbonate platforms (e.g., Choi and Ginsburg 1982; Choi and Holmes 1982; Davies et al. 1989; Meyer 1989; Sonnenfeld and Cross 1993; Ferro et al. 1999).

Although the Florida Platform has maintained carbonate sedimentation throughout the Late Mesozoic to the Quaternary, its Late Miocene to Quaternary history in the southeastern part contains an important record that demonstrates how siliciclastic progradation can be essential to renewal of carbonate-platform growth following termination of carbonate production. In this case, carbonate growth ended in the Miocene. Our model of fluvial-deltaic siliciclastic progradation from the area of the Caloosahatchee River to the present-day shelf edge of the Florida Keys is reinforced by marineseismic profiles from the Keys that can be interpreted as prograding siliciclastic deltaic wedges (Warzeski et al. 1996). This example from the southeastern portion of the Florida Platform shows the importance of siliciclastic filling of accommodation as a means of providing a substratum for later rejuvenation of carbonate-platform growth. A similar scenario has been proposed for Late Quaternary siliciclastics and carbonates along the Belize margin (Ferro et al. 1999). There, Ferro et al. (1999) proposed that initiation and growth of carbonates over shelf-edge siliciclastic delta and slope fan prograding wedges have served as a possible substratum over which the present barrier reef developed. Like the Belize margin, the southeastern Florida Platform is an ideal location to sharpen our understanding of the influence of mixing of siliciclastics and carbonates on platform evolution.