The Cenozoic carbonate systems of Australasia are the product of a diverse assortment of depositional and post-depositional processes, reflecting the interplay of eustasy, tectonics (both plate and local scale), climate, and evolutionary trends that influenced their initiation and development. These systems, which comprise both land-attached and isolated platforms, were initiated in a wide variety of tectonic settings (including rift, passive margin, and arc-related) and under warm and cool-water conditions where, locally, siliciclastic input affected their development. The lithofacies, biofacies, growth morphology, diagenesis, and hydrocarbon reservoir potential of these systems are products of these varying influences. The studies reported in this volume range from syntheses of tectonic and depositional factors influencing carbonate deposition and controls on reservoir formation and petroleum system development, to local studies from the South China Sea, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Malaysia, the Marion Plateau, the Philippines, Western Australia, and New Caledonia that incorporate outcrop and subsurface data, including 3-D seismic imaging of carbonate platforms and facies, to understand the interplay of factors affecting the development of these systems under widely differing circumstances. This volume will be of importance to geoscientists interested in the variability of Cenozoic carbonate systems and the factors that controlled their formation, and to those wanting to understand the range of potential hydrocarbon reservoirs discovered in these carbonates and the events that led to favorable reservoir and trap development.

Modern seismic data have become an essential toolkit for studying carbonate platforms and reservoirs in impressive detail. Whilst driven primarily by oil and gas exploration and development, data sharing and collaboration are delivering fundamental geological knowledge on carbonate systems, revealing platform geomorphologies and how their evolution on millennial time scales, as well as kilometric length scales, was forced by long-term eustatic, oceanographic or tectonic factors. Quantitative interrogation of modern seismic attributes in carbonate reservoirs permits flow units and barriers arising from depositional and diagenetic processes to be imaged and extrapolated between wells. This volume reviews the variety of carbonate platform and reservoir characteristics that can be interpreted from modern seismic data, illustrating the benefits of creative interaction between geophysical and carbonate geological experts at all stages of a seismic campaign. Papers cover carbonate exploration, including the uniquely challenging South Atlantic pre-salt reservoirs, seismic modelling of carbonates, and seismic indicators of fluid flow and diagenesis.

SEPM (Society for Sedimentary Geology) and the CSPG (Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists) convened the Mountjoy II Carbonate Research Conference in Austin, Texas, from June 25-29, 2017. The conference, honoring Eric Mountjoy and his numerous contributions as a geologist and graduate student supervisor, was attended by ~140 professors, students, and industry geologists and engineers from around the world. The theme for the conference and now SEPM Special Publication 112-Carbonate Pore Systems-follows the general concept to have topics that are relevant to the petroleum industry and therefore blend the best of cutting-edge geoscience research with industry needs by offering a major publication featuring studies with significant new results in the analysis of carbonate pore systems. This new SEPM-CSPG Special Publication is timely given the renewed interest in carbonate reservoirs, including those in carbonate mudrock deposits, as well as the many new technical advances and approaches that are being utilized in diagenetic studies.

Rhodolith beds are recognized internationally as a unique ecosystem, and they are the focus of this interdisciplinary book. These marine beds occur worldwide, from the tropics to the poles, ranging in depth from intertidal to deep subtidal habitats and they are also represented in extensive fossil deposits. In the light of international interest in rhodoliths and maerl concerning their role in coastal ecosystems and with respect to biodiversity, fisheries, and the production of sediment, this book provides the most comprehensive view possible. As readers will discover, rhodoliths/maerl are fundamental to a range of ecological processes, acting as ecosystem engineers including playing key roles in recruitment and providing nursery habitats. Rhodoliths/maerl have been used commercially in some parts of the world, and they are understood to be vulnerable to coastal modifications and human-induced change, and hence their status may serve as an indicator of ecosystem health. Rhodoliths/maerl contribute to global carbon budgets although the extent remains to be evaluated, as do the potential impacts of changing global climates and ocean acidification.

This book documents and interprets the onshore Cenozoic temperate carbonate depositional system along the southern margin of Australia. These strata, deposited in four separate basins, together with the extensive modern marine system offshore, comprise the largest such cool-water carbonate system on the globe. The approach is classic and comparative but the information is a synthesis of recent research and new information. A brief section of introduction outlines the setting, modern comparative sedimentology offshore, and structure of the Cenozoic onshore. The core of the book is a detailed analysis and illustration of the four Eocene to Pleistocene successions. Deposits range from temperate carbonates, to biosiliceous spiculites, to marginal marine siliciclastics. Each unit is interpreted, as much as possible, based on our understanding of the modern offshore depositional system. A subsequent part concentrates on diagenesis both before and after the late Miocene uplift. It turns out that alteration in the two packages is entirely different. The preceding attributes of each succession are then interpreted on the basis of controlling factors such as tectonics, oceanography, climate, and glaciation of nearby Antarctica. This research has revealed new implications for the interpretation of specific attributes of cool-water carbonate sedimentology that could only be discovered from the rock record. Insights concerning cyclicity, reef mounds, biosiliceous deposition, and trophic resources are detailed in the next section. The concluding part focuses on global comparisons, especially the Mediterranean and New Zealand.

Introduction -- Mesozoic depositional evolution -- Cenozoic depositional evolution -- Petroleum habitat.

The world's continental shelves are the sites of vast resources of food, energy and minerals, the exploitation of which is continuously increasing. Fluctuating global sea levels throughout the Quaternary period produced multiple transgressive and regressive cycles that profoundly affected and shaped these shelves. The complex interactions among climate, sea level, tectonics, oceanography and sediment input have formed distinctive sediment packages on each shelf and provide a guide to the interpretation of older shelf sequences throughout the geological record. This Memoir compiles studies on 23 selected shelves from all the continents, focusing on their evolution and examining the patterns of sedimentation during the past approximately 125 000 years. In addition to providing basic background information for each area, the chapters consider specific aspects of continental shelf research, from seismic stratigraphy to geomorphology, from palaeoceanography to palaeo sea-level reconstruction and from palaeontology to geochemistry.