Destruction of carbonates

Dissolution

Because of their high mobility, carbonates may dissolve from horizons in which they originally accumulated, as a reaction to climatic changes towards a higher humidity.

Some of the most common indications of dissolution and remobilization of previously accumulated carbonates are:

in some cases the grains display well rounded shapes, usually ellipsoidal, although spherical ones are not seldom, and show some large spaces between them,

the most distintive feature however of this process is the presence of grains with cone like terminations. The carbonate grains exhibit numerous very pronounced denticulations as a result of dissolution.

Index | Processes | Previous | Next