This is part of the How To…series on carbonate rocks
Diagenesis of carbonate sediment begins soon after deposition and continues at all depths until metamorphic processes takes over (a statement that is about as diffuse as the boundary between diagenesis and metamorphism). Burial can also be expressed as a function of changing temperature, pressure, and fluid composition, and is manifested as physical and chemical changes such as:
- compaction and pressure solution.
- replacement of metastable and unstable minerals like aragonite, high-Mg calcite, and evaporites by calcite,
- dolomitization,
- creation of secondary porosity, and
- neomorphism – recrystallization.