Abstract
Raised Pleistocene reef limestone characterizes the W coastal plain of Jeddah on the E margin of the Red Sea. Soon after the Mid-Pleistocene regression, the subaerially exposed limestone was subjected to meteoric processes during which Mg-calcite was converted to stable low Mg-calcite and partial or complete dissolution of aragonite occurred at various depths. Early meteoric diagenesis through dissolution-precipitation processes produced sparry calcite in the voids formed by the dissolution of aragonite in the limestone. Following the late Pleistocene-Holocene marine transgression, dolomitization was initiated in the reef in a meteoric-marine water mixing zone. Lack of correlation between dolomite and the evaporite minerals and the low Sr concentrations argue against hypersaline solutions as agents of dolomitization. Mineralogical and chemical data suggest that most diagenetic dolomite is formed at the expense of primary aragonite. Vertical and lateral variations in the distribution of dolomite, aragonite and calcite indicate that dolomitization processes have been affected by the fluctuating mixed-water zone associated with sea-level oscillations. Holocene rise in the sea-level terminated dolomitization in the lower layers and shifted the dolomitizing front to the upper sections of the limestone. Dolomite is low in the upper horizons of the reef and occurs as scattered perfect rhombs, while in the lower layers it is fine-grained and subhedral. (Authors' abstract)