Tentative quantitative description of paleo-relief of buried reef forms

Abstract

The paper discusses principal possibilities and techniques of determination of paleodepth in basins around reefs which are now buried. Elevation of top of a reef above the basin floor may be approximated by difference between thickness of the ref and that of synchronous non-reef sediments. As the top of the reef is about sea level, its height is almost the same as the depth of the surrounding basin, Methods of studies of overlying sediments (considering different degree of their condensation) are introduced to estimate differentiated tectonic subsidence, initial pre-reef relief and the reef's sinking into underlying deposits. Cases of reconstructions of different kinds of reefs are discussed, both under conditions of differentiated subsidence and without it.