Fifty years of research on the Joulters ooid sandbody—Impact on carbonate sedimentology and diagenesis and lessons learned from an invaluable analogue

Abstract The Joulters ooid sandbody of northern Great Bahama Bank is a vast expanse (on average, 4 m thick over ca 400 km 2 ) of muddy ooid sands partly rimmed by clean ooid sands. Knowledge of the development of depositional and localised diagenetic patterns in the Joulters example has forwarded our general understanding of carbonate sedimentology, stratigraphy and diagenesis, and in so doing provides valuable insight into an interpretation of ancient accumulations. The strength of the Joulters example as an analogue for ancient carbonate sand accumulations comes from the combined view of satellite imagery, surface facies mapping, extensive sediment coring and rock coring of a key island. Ooids form in current‐swept areas with dynamic morphology and can accumulate in conditions quite different from those in which they were generated, as is much better displayed in Joulters than in other modern examples from the Bahamas and elsewhere. Results summarised herein are a calibration of some of these modes of accumulation focussing on key sedimentologic characteristics. The importance of the sandbody as an analogue for outcrop and subsurface studies is considered in this review as Joulters illustrates the strike‐elongated nature of carbonate sand deposits relative to the platform margin, lateral variability that is inherent in such depositional systems due to sand flats and tidal channels, and complexity that is added by beach/island complexes.