Plate tectonic control of global patterns of detrital and carbonate sedimentation

Most of the earth's major rivers now enter the sea on passive continental margins which did not exist in the early Mesozoic. This reorganization of drainage has strongly influenced the distributions of marine detrital and carbonate facies. In contrast to the point inputs of detrital sediments, the supply of carbonate has been from the oceanic reservoir and is diffuse. Carbonate deposition dominates the continental shelves in all warm regions where the detrital sediment input is not extremely large. In higher latitudes, carbonate may be a significant proportion of the continental margin material, but facies changes are usually much more gradual. -from Authors