The blooms of giant diatoms and their deposits as laminated diatom mats (LDMs) at seafloor represent mass export fluxes of organic carbon and biogenic silicon, potentially acting as a negative feedback to ocean acidification and global warming and consequently playing a key role in climate changes. We review the progress on the study of marine LDMs, with an emphasis on our relevant research outcomes, in paleoceanography and biogeochemistry. The occurrences of giant diatoms cannot be seen as an indicator of upwelling. Their mass accumulations in tropical ocean sediments are generally related to strong oceanic stratification, while their oozes in subtropical marine sediments are mainly associated with frontal zones. Surface water is not always oligotrophic and also eutrophic when giant diatoms blooming. The buoyancy regulation with extraction of nutrients from below the nutricline is not the sole nutrient utilization pathway for giant diatoms. Giant diatoms can also utilize silicic acid generated through dissolution of eolian dust in surface water. The organic carbon is generated by the absorption of atmospheric CO_2 by high primary production of giant diatoms, and then degraded into respired CO_2 in deep ocean. The respired CO_2 is sequestrated in deep ocean with the form of a deeper respired carbon pool under ocean stratification condition, representing an important force on atmospheric CO_2 drawdown during the glaciation. Marine LDMs can accumulate in oxic and suboxic conditions, indicating that controls on the formation of laminated sediments are more complicated and varied than previously thought. Thus, caution needs to be taken in routinely correlating preservation of sedimentary lamination with anoxic bottom water conditions. The eolian-silicon-induced blooms model represents an important new addition to mechanisms of formation of marine LDMs. Finally, some existent problems and prospects in the field of marine LDMs are put forward.