THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

SCHOOL OF EARTH SCIENCES

INTRODUCTION TO HERON REEF

Subject: Geology of Coral Reefs

Professor: Dr. Gregory E. Webb
Student: Letícia Sayuri Pastore

BRISBANE/SEPTEMBER OF 2015
 SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 3

REGIONAL SETTING ...................................................................................... 3

PREVIOUS STUDIES ...................................................................................... 4

GEOMORPHOLOGY ....................................................................................... 6
Bathymetry ................................................................................................... 6
Reef morphology .......................................................................................... 6

GEOLOGY ....................................................................................................... 7
Sediments .................................................................................................... 7
Beachrock .................................................................................................... 7

GEOPHYSICAL DATA .................................................................................... 8

PRE-PLEISTOCENE GEOLOGY .................................................................... 9

RECENT GEOLOGY ..................................................................................... 10

Quaternary sea level .................................................................................. 10
Climate ....................................................................................................... 11
Waves and currents ................................................................................... 11

REFERENCES .............................................................................................. 13
 INTRODUCTION
The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is composed of more than 3000 reefs
and has an extension of more than 2000 km (Mather and Bennett, 1993),
localized almost parallel to the northeastern Australian coastline, offshore of
Queensland. It formed on the continental shelf, and the reefs lie
approximately 10 km west of it, in a place composed of only carbonate
sediment (Jell and Flood, 1978).
Research in the southern part of the GBR indicates that corals started
to colonize this area in the late Pleistocene (Jell and Flood, 1978). The
Capricorn and Bunker groups of reefs together occupy this region and one of
the main data sources of this area is Heron Reef, which is part of the
Capricorn Group (Jell and Flood, 1978). The sediment production in this area
is intensive, and the sources are varied, from bioerosion to physical, to
chemical precipitation.
Although Heron Reef is a widely studied area, there is much more to
learn from it. This review intends to cover the major aspects of Heron Reef
such as sediment production and recent geology, with the purpose to serve as
a base for the upcoming field trip to the same place.

REGIONAL SETTING
The southern part of the GBR is comprised by Capricorn and Bunker
groups and Lady Elliot Reef (Jell and Flood 1978). Lady Elliot Reef is the
most southern Reef, followed by Bunker group, which is composed of four
reefs: Lady Musgrave, Fairfax, Hoskyn and Boult. The next 16 reefs are part
of the Capricorn Group: Llewellyn, Fitzroy, Lamont, One Tree, Sykes, Heron,
Wistari, Erskine, Mast Head, Polmaise, Wreck, Wilson, Broomfield,
Northwest, Tryon and North Reef (figure 1). Fourteen cays occur on 12 of the
reefs with leeward sand cays more common than windward rubble cays. The
reefs, including Heron Reef, occur on the mid to outer shelf 80km offshore
(Jell and Webb, 2012). Water depths are 30-60 m and the reefs are 10-20 km
west of the incised continental shelf edge in a zone of pure carbonate
sediment (Maiklem, 1970 in Jell and Webb, 2012). The sea floor between
reefs is usually flat, but it can be steep when reefs are close together. Some
reefs can be connected by shoal areas, with Heron and Sykes Reefs being
one of the most prominent example (Jell and Webb, 2012).

Fig. 1: Map of the reefs of the southern part of Great Barrier Reef showing position of Heron
Reef (Jell and Webb, 2012).

PREVIOUS STUDIES
Many studies were made on the Great Barrier Reef, especially on
Heron Reef, since the beginning of last century and in the last three decades
the number of studies increased sensibly. Geophysical studies were made by
companies for petroleum exploration, as well as morphological, geological
and sedimentological research with academic but also conservation purposes.
One of the important studies was the sedimentological facies study
made by Maxwell (1973), in which he recognized five main facies in Heron
Reef (fig. 2):
1. The Lithothamnion-dominated facies, restricted to the reef rim and
the axial zone of the lagoon
2. The Halimeda facies, which dominates the reef flat and the northern
half of the lagoon
3. The Foraminifera facies, closely related to the first facies, but it
develops as isolated zones, usually in the inner part of the reef rim
4. The Mollusca facies, which is abundant in the northwestern part of
the reef, where algal and coral zone are narrow and there is a
substantial cover of dead coral rubble.
5. The coral facies, which occurs in of the lagoon where the tidal
currents ebb.

Figure 2: Sedimentary facies, Heron Reef. Distribution of detritus from major groups – 1.
Lithothamnion, 2. Halimeda, 3. Foraminifera, 4. Mollusc and 5. Coral (Maxwell, 1973).
 It is clear in the figure that the Halimeda is the dominant facies in the
reef, but that doesn’t mean that it is the most abundant organism living there.
The living Halimeda is scarce in the reef but the rates of regrowth are very
high, while corals are much more common organisms, but they are more
resistant to destruction so they produce less amounts of sediment at lower
rates (Maxwell, 1973).

GEOMORPHOLOGY

Bathymetry
The GBR can be divided in three groups, which are the Northern, the
Central and the Southern regions. The three of them can be defined on
batymetric character (shallow, intermediate and deep). The Southern region,
where Heron Reef is located, is a zone where the continental shelf is shallow
if compared with the other regions and has a wider area, where the
continental slope is farther from the continent (Maxwell, 1968).

Reef morphology
Heron Reef is a moderate sized, lagoonal platform reef with a
vegetated sand cay on its leeward end. Its lagoon is 3-3,5 m deep and has
numerous patch reefs (Jell and Webb, 2012). It has a windward reef slope, a
reef rim, a reef flat, a lagoon, a leeward reef slope, a reefal shoal and a sand
cay (fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Cross-section of a lagoonal platform reef such as Heron Reef (Jell and Webb,
2012)
 GEOLOGY

Sediments
The sediments in Heron Reef are mostly composed of calcium
carbonate. Their behaviour is different form siliciclastic sediments due to two
main reasons: grainsize in carbonate sediment is initially controlled by the
source and the Sorby effect. The three major sources, are the excretion of
calcium carbonate skeletons by marine organisms; physical destruction
caused by events such as cyclones or storms; and bioerosion, such as the
feeding of parrot fishes. Marine organisms produce allochems, which are
particulate carbonate sediments produced in situ. The exposure of part of the
reefs due to low tides can kill the top part of corals and with time erosion
causes the production of more sediments (Webb, 2015). Moreover, the Sorby
effect shows that the source has different grainsize sediments but it can
breakdown, producing smaller grainsize sediments.
The bulk of the sediments is composed of biogenic material, such as
skeletons of coralline algae, coral, Halimeda, molluscs and foraminifers (Jell
and Flood, 1978). The differences in the sediments from the source, such as
composition, skeletal structure and resistance differentiate them from each
other rather than a random pattern of deposition (Jell and Flood, 1978).
Calcitic organisms (coralline algae and foraminifers) are more resistant and
produce sediment that is coarser and less mobile, while aragonitic sediment
(produced by corals, Halimeda and molluscs) is finer and more mobile. The
final pattern of sediments with the waves and currents as transportation
agents are that the coarser sediments tend to be more calcitic and they are
present where the environment energy is higher (e.g. reef rim), whereas the
finer sediments tend to be more aragonitic and they are present where the
energy is lower (e.g., reef lagoon), and intermediate places can have the two
types of sediment (Jell and Flood, 1978).

Beachrock
The beachrock in Heron Island is mainly grainstone, a high energy rock
that is located mostly in the south-western and north-western part of the reef
cay (Fig. 4). It is important because it serves as a natural barrier for containing
the sediments. They are mostly composed by biogenic sediments that present
early cementation of fibrous aragonite, which shows a combination of biotic
and abiotic processes (Webb, 2015).

Fig. 4: Beachrock exposed in Heron Island showed in yellow (Webb, 2015).

GEOPHYSICAL DATA
The platform between Heron and Sykes reefs is located 15 m below
water depth. At this level an unconformity was recognised by many authors
and was later described as a subaerial weathering because of a lowering in
sea level during the last glacial phase, in the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary,
that caused the karstification of older reefs and formed a base for the growth
of recent coral reefs (Jell and Flood, 1978).
Geophysical investigations show that recent sediments are indeed
deposited over a pre-existing surface. Moreover, this discontinuity represents
a regression followed by a transgression and later reef growth located at
shallow depths below the water/sediment interface on the shelf in the
proximity of Heron and Wistari Reefs (Fig. 5). That may correlate with data
from the Heron Island Bore, described by many authors (Jell and Flood,
1978).



 

 









Fig. 5: Continuous seismic reflection profiles extending from the vicinity of Heron
%^R 03 d  IFS8FXIYQd Q%9QE9"d M%-A %"V:IFd JLI,;>%Qd 935d M%QI>ZT9IFd IIE%Md%_S%F$9F3d (MIEd S7%d\<"9H<UadI'd%NIFd%%(d ]%QW]M$d UIdW5%d
Reef?%%d
westward
I)d 9QVM9dto the "MIQQd
%%(d lee ofS4%dWistari Reef, 9FS%M
%MIF 9QSM8d across
M%%*dthe Heron-Wistari
"6FF%?d
XJJ%Ld JMI12%inter-reef channel
d F$d %`S%F$9F3d (upper
FIPS5]O$d (PIEd S6%d ?%%d I(d
9QSL9d %%+dI]%Ld JMI,C@%d d
profile), and
Q(d Q%d extending
.?IIMdEd northward
EY?U9J>%d from theJIQ9S9[%d
" dL%QJIFQ%d"4F3%d lee of SId
Wistari Reef
F%3S9[%d F$d JLIE9H%FSdQX
(lower profile). Sf: sea floor, m: NQ d "= O%%'d
!ISSIEdL%/B%"SIMQd
Q%$9E%FSQd MQd KY%QS9IF ?%d QY! 4IM8cIFS>d M%%(d Q%$9E%FUQd "4d S9E:F3d ?9F%d IFd S4%d \%G8"?d Q"?%d 9Qd  ED??<Q%"IF$d JMSd
multiple, c: response change positive
d ]adUM[%>dU:E%dILdJJMI`9ES%@ad to negative, A and %"5dJMI+9?%d9Qd
 EdIM9bIFU?d?&F3U6dI(d B: prominent sub-bottom
JJMI_9EU%?ad ? A#reflectors,
d

brs: back-reef sediments, rs?: questionable sub-horizontal reef sediments. The horizontal
length of each profile is approximately 1 km (Jell and Flood, 1978).

PRE-PLEISTOCENE GEOLOGY
Davies in his record of 1973 describes the borehole from the Heron
Reef sediments. The description reveals an aragonite surface on the top, and
unconformities at 20, 36, 75, 96 and 140 meters deep, which were recognized
by calcite solutions surfaces. The sediments have a tendency to go from more
calcareous sands with reefal sediments and calcite cementation on the top
part to a more detrital facies on the bottom and a repetition of that pattern,
which could mean that the coral reefs grown to a certain level but due to
changes in sea level they died and were buried by detrital sediments (Davies,
1973).
 RECENT GEOLOGY

Quaternary sea level

The changes in sea level in the Quaternary were significant as there
were cycles in which the fluctuations happened due to glacial (sea level
lowstand) and interglacial (sea level highstand) periods. The periodicity of
these cycles is between 100-120 thousand years, when the ice sheets
localized in high latitudes of the planet contracted and expanded (Hopley et
al., 2007).
Evidences for these sea level changes are in oxygen isotope records
(marine isotope record), which were extracted from foraminiferans from deep-
sea cores. They show the longest records that indicates the existence of
these cycles for the last 800 ka (Shackleton et al., 1990). Carbon dioxide
(CO2) dating also shows results, and they concord similarly with oxygen
isotopes (Mudelsee, 2001). Fossil reefs are also used for data comparison
with marine isotope records, but they only go back 340 ka (Chappell, 1994).
Milankovitch’s astronomical theory is widely accepted as an explanation for
Quaternary climate cycles (Hopley et al., 2007).
Although North-eastern Australia was not glaciated in the Quaternary,
the eustatic sea levels oscilated and flooded the continental shelf, suffering
what is called hydro-isostatic effect. Continental shelves are tough structures,
that when flooded can subside a little and make an apparent lifting of the
shallower part. Therefore, the reef growth in the GBR has been very
influenced by the hydro-isostatic factor (Hopley et al., 2007).
Many studies have been made as to try to constrain when has the last
interglacial maximum happened before the Holocene (on the late
Pleistocene), and this age generally extends form ~129-128 ka to 116-114 ka
(Hopley et al., 2007). This period is when the sea level was close to present
day levels and that is when many reefs that today underlie present reefs in the
GBR formed, therefore, it is an important period in the reefs history (Hopley et
al., 2007). The last glacial maximum is happened at about ~30-19 ka, and it
lowered around -125+-5 m (Hopley et al., 2007).
From the Holocene epoch until the current time, the eustatic sea level
had many transgression and regression episodes. After the last glacial
maximum (~19ka), the sea level rose quickly from 125m+-5m to be near
present until approximately 6.5 ka (Lambeck, 2004).

Climate
In the GBR, the most noticeable climatic influences are the winds that
come from south-easterly trade winds. Cyclones and rainfall are also
common, with the cyclones occurring from November to May, originating
usually in the Coral Sea. From 1997-2005, there were 12 cyclones that
impacted the GBR, with most of them happening in the central region (Hopley
et al., 2007).
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation events are also very influential in the
GBR climate, because these events evolve over a period of 12-18 months,
and they are associated with weak monsoon circulation, fewer tropical
cyclones and lower rainfall. In 1997-98 there was an ENSO event and it was
associated with a coral bleaching event. Studies also show a correlation of El
Niño events and a fall on cyclone activity (Hopley et al., 2007).

Waves and currents

The currents are correlated with tidal range and the intensity of low
circulation, and they are important because can assist in lagoon flushing,
spread larvae, assist nutrient-rich upwelled water to penetrate in the reefs and
inhibit river plumes spreading in the outer shelf (Hopley et al., 2007). The
topography also has a big influence in how these currents behave. Circulation
around reefs are complex because they evolve three-dimensional water
movements. Water goes around the reef and that may cause the formation of
eddies that have a big influence on the creation of banks and shoals, as well
as the transport of sediments. Currents also penetrate within reefs, in extreme
cases transporting coarser sediments into the lagoon (Hopley et al., 2007).
Waves have a high influence on reef morphology, as well as reef
morphology affects these processes. The reefs in the GBR have normally an
obvious windward edge, that are characteristically very steep, but waves have
little interaction with the seabed only a few hundred meters from the reef front
(Hopley et al., 2007).
 Refraction and diffraction at the reef crest, on the reef margins and
across the reef platform are significant processes in the determination of
sediment distribution, and in the formation of sand cays and other reef top
sediment deposits (Fig. 6).

Figure 6: Refraction and diffraction of waves around reef, showing how the sediments
accumulate in the windward and leeward parts of the reef (Hopley et al., 2007).
REFERENCES

Chappell, J. 1994. Upper Quaternary sea levels, coral terraces, oxygen

isotopes and deep-sea temperatures. J. Geog. Japan 103, 828-840.

Davies, P. J. (1973). Subsurface solution unconformities at Heron Island,

Great Barrier Reef. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics.
Department of Minerals and Energy – Australia. 1-19 p.

Jell, J. S., and Flood, P. G. (1978) Guide to the Geology of Reefs of the
Capricorn and Bunker Groups, Great Barrier Reef Province with special
reference to the Heron Reef. Papers, Department of Geology, University of
Queensland. 1-85.

Hopley D., Smithers, S. G. and Parnell, K. E., 2007, The geomorphology of

the Great Barrier Reef: development, diversity, and change: Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge, 532 pp.

Jell, J. S. and Webb, G. E. 2012. Geology of Heron Island and Adjacent

Reefs, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Journal of International Geoscience –
Episodes 35. 110-119.

Lambeck, K. 2004. Sea-level change through the last glacial cycle:

geophysical, glaciological and palaeogeographic consequences. C. R.
Geosci. 336, 677-689.

Mather, P., & Bennett, I. (1993) A Coral Reef Handbook. Australian Coral
Reef Society, 3 ed. 263 p.

Maxwell, W. G. H. 1962. Lithification of carbonate sediments in the Heron

Island reef. J. geol. Soc. Aust., 8:217-238.

Maxwell, W. G. H. 1973. Sediments of the Great Barrier Reef Province in:

Jones, O. A. and Endean, R. Biology and Geology of Coral Reefs. 1973, Vol.
1, 410 p.

Mudelsee, M. 2001. The phase relations among atmospheric CO2 content,

temperature and global ice volume over the past 420 ka. Quatern. Sci. Rev.
20, 583-589.

Shackleton, N. J., Berger, A., and Peltier, W. R. 1990. An alternative

astronomical calibration of the Lower Pleistocene timescale based on ODP
Site 677. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinb., Earth Sci. 81, 251-261.

Webb, G. E. 2015. Lectures 6, 7, 8 for “Geology of Coral Reefs”. School of

Earth Sciences, University of Queensland.