Analysis of modern carbonate sediments: Lubber's Bank, Abaco, Bahamas

The Bahamas archipelago is comprised of numerous carbonate platforms. Within these platforms are a variety of carbonate depositional environments, each unique and warranting detailed investigations of the interrelationships of physical conditions and trends in sediment texture and composition. This study examines one of these environments, Lubber's Bank. The bank is mapped and the physical hydrographic setting in the vicinity of the bank is examined through field measurements, analysis of satellite pictures and predictive techniques. This information is correlated with analysis of sediment texture and composition. Results indicate that the surface sediments on the bank probably originate in the surrounding sea grass beds and on the bank as skeletal material and may have originated by the accumulation of sediments on antecedent topographic highs during the Holocene transgression.