The dynamics of foreland basin carbonate platforms: tectonic and eustatic controls

A numerical model linking a coral growth algorithm and an algorithm for flexural subsidence reproduces many of the characteristics of drowned foreland basin carbonate platforms. This model successfully matches the observed distribution and drowning age of drowned carbonate platforms in the Huon Gulf, Papua New Guinea, a modern submarine foreland basin. Analysis of equations describing flexural subsidence and eustatic sea‐level variations suggest that there are minimum convergence rates and periodicities of sea‐level variation required to drown foreland basin carbonate platforms. For convergence rates on the order of a few millimetres per year, sea‐level must vary on time‐scales of about 10⁵ years in order to induce a rate of relative sea‐level rise great enough to drown an otherwise healthy foreland basin carbonate platform.