MICROBIAL CARBONATES: A REVIEW AND PERSPECTIVES

The authors reviewed and summarized the historical and current status and the perspectives of the study on microbial carbonates based on the previous researches. Microbial carbonates were formed by calcified microbes (e.g.cyanobacteria, microalgae, etc.) under the combination of microbial processes, sedimentary processes, and diagenetic processes. Microbial carbonates consist of a variety of types, including stromatolites, thrombolites, dendrolites, leiolites, oncolites, and laminites. Microbial carbonates developed in all geological time, with its great abundance in Meso-Neoproterozoic, showing general declining trend in the Phanerozoic. In addition, microbes play an important role in the formation of primary dolomite, carbonate mud mounds, and the fifth primary sedimentary structures. Recently, the development of the research on microbial carbonates supplements and completes the genesis and classification of carbonates.