Carbonate skeletons of plants and animals are the major components of marine carbonate sediments. The chemical and mineralogical compositions of these skeletons both control responses of skeletal material to and act as tracers for monitoring diagenetic processes. Although water (liquid and bound inorganic H2O and OH-) is the second or third most abundant component of carbonate skeletons, little is known about the different phases present, their abundances, or how these different phases affect or are affected by diagenetic alteration, even in skeletons of the most important sediment-producing taxa. The goals of this research are to study the interactions between intrinsic water in carbonate skeletons and early diagenetic processes. The first object of the work will be to quantitatively characterize the water content of skeletons of living representatives of major framework and sediment producing taxa. Amount of water present, the phases in which it occurs, and the abundances of these phases will be related to skeletal mineralogy, chemistry, and microstructure, and to taxonomy. The second phase of the work will examine interactions of early diagenetic processes with the forms and abundance of water in fossil skeletons of these same taxa, and the ways in which early changes in abundance and form of water affect the subsequent diagenetic alteration of these skeletons.
