The Holocene geology of the Pelsaert reef complex, southern Houtman Abrolhos, Western Australia

[Truncated] The Pelsaert Reef Complex is an emergent1 shelf reef positioned at 29oS on the edge of the inner continental shelf of Western Australia. The reef's modern biohermal communities comprise coralline algal and macro-algal floras with subordinate coral on the windward margins, and high diversity coral assemblages in lee areas. Grainstone and packstone derived from the biohermal substrates are reworked by lagoonal echinoderm-molluscan infauna, which add skeletal detritus. Surrounding shelf sediments are bryozoan packstone on the outer shelf slope grading through algal-foraminiferal packstone/boundstone on the outer shelf slope/inner shelf plain boundary to molluscan-lithoskel/lithoclast grainstone on the inner shelf plain.