Sediments on volcanic islands - on the importance of the exception

Abstract

Small-scale outcrops of prevolcanic sediments occur on some of the Cape Verde Islands and the Canary Islands. They comprise deep-water suites which must have been uplifted to their present position by volcano-tectonic processes. The synvolcanic sediments are essentially biocalcarenites which occur on every group of the Middle Atlantic Islands. They were formed after the islands had reached a position close to sea-level during the Neogene; most of them seem to belong to the Upper Miocene and Pliocene. Much of the carbonates belong to marine terraces. The processes of carbonate formation and diagenesis seem to continue today, including the formation of caliche. -from Author