The diversity in cementation and solution of carbonate sediments occurs at deposition, with shallow burial and during deeper burial. Our inability to predict the evolution of porosity and permeability in carbonates often results in exploration failures in stratigraphic sequences that are otherwise well understood.

Current models of diagenesis are derived from specific, localized examples. We feel that carbonate diagenesis paths respond to geography, thus current studies may be too specific to reveal general themes. Cementation and solution need to be reconsidered in order to focus our perception of the important controls on these processes, such as mineralogy, depositional texture, burial depth, time, pressure, temperature, water chemistry, hydrocarbon migration, and micro-organisms. We relate all of the currently available analytical techniques into a self-consistent model and suggest new lines of analysis which may add to the general framework.

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