Petrophysical properties of bioclastic platform carbonates: implications for porosity controls during burial

This study is based on rock mechanical tests of samples from platform carbonate strata to document their petrophysical properties and determine their potential for porosity loss by mechanical compaction. Sixteen core-plug samples, including eleven limestones and five dolostones, from Miocene carbonate platforms on the Marion Plateau, offshore northeast Australia, were tested at vertical effective stress, σ 1 ′ , of 0–70 MPa, as lateral strain was kept equal to zero. The samples were deposited as bioclastic facies in platform-top settings having paleo-water depths of