Reflux dolomitization - A Holocene example beneath a coastal salina, West Caicos Island, Turks and Caicos Islands

Company Point dolomitization less than 1 km in from the western edge of Caicos Platform demonstrated that this process is not limited to platform- or ramp-interior settings well removed from the open ocean. A semi-arid climate combined with depositional ridge topography and periodic storm surge and groundwater recharge, allowed this coastal salina to initiate and evolve. As these beach-ridge and evaporitic deposits continue to prograde, as they are doing on the eastern side of West Caicos Island, then one can expect associated evaporitic deposits to have the potential not only to serve as an updip sealing facies, but to generate Mg-rich fluids to create precompactional porous dolostones with sheet-like reservoir quality.