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Detrital Grains (detrital + grain)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	100%

Selected Abstracts

Reactions leading to the formation and breakdown of stilpnomelane in the Otago Schist, New Zealand

JOURNAL OF METAMORPHIC GEOLOGY, Issue 4 2000
G. Li
Semi-pelitic rocks ranging in grade from the prehnite,pumpellyite to the greenschist facies from south-eastern Otago, New Zealand, have been investigated in order to evaluate the reactions leading to formation and breakdown of stilpnomelane. Detrital grains of mica and chlorite along with fine-grained authigenic illite and chlorite occur in lower-grade rocks with compactional fabric parallel to bedding. At higher grades, detrital grains have undergone dissolution, and metamorphic phyllosilicates have crystallized with preferred orientation (sub)parallel to bedding, leading to slaty cleavage. Stilpnomelane is found in metapelites of the pumpellyite,actinolite facies and the chlorite zone of the greenschist facies, but only rarely in the biotite zone of the greenschist facies. Illite or phengite is ubiquitous, whereas chlorite occurs only rarely with stilpnomelane upgrade of the pumpellyite-out isograd. Chemical and textural relationships suggest that stilpnomelane formed from chlorite, phengite, quartz, K-feldspar and iron oxides. Stilpnomelane was produced by grain-boundary replacement of chlorite and by precipitation from solution, overprinting earlier textures. Some relict 14 Å chlorite layers are observed by TEM to be in the process of transforming to 12 Å stilpnomelane layers. The AEM analyses show that Fe is strongly partitioned over Mg into stilpnomelane relative to chlorite (KD,2.5) and into chlorite relative to phengite (KD,1.9). Modified A,FM diagrams, projected from the measured phengite composition rather than from ideal KAl3Si3O10(OH)2, are used to elucidate reactions among chlorite, stilpnomelane, phengite and biotite. In addition to pressure, temperature and bulk rock composition, the stilpnomelane-in isograd is controlled by variations in K, Fe3+/Fe2+, O/OH and H2O contents, and the locus of the isograd is expected to vary in rocks of different oxidation states and permeabilities. Biotite, quartz and less phengitic muscovite form from stilpnomelane, chlorite and phengite in the biotite zone. Projection of bulk rock compositions from phengite, NaAlO2, SiO2 and H2O reveals that they lie close to the polyhedra defined by the A,FM minerals and albite. Other extended A,FM diagrams, such as one projected from phengite, NaAlO2, CaAl2O4, SiO2 and H2O, may prove useful in the evaluation of other low-grade assemblages. [source]

Basin evolution, diagenesis and uranium mineralization in the Paleoproterozic Thelon Basin, Nunavut, Canada

BASIN RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010
Eric E. Hiatt
ABSTRACT The Paleoproterozoic (Statherian) Thelon Basin is located in the Churchill Province of the Canadian Shield, formed following the Trans-Hudson Orogeny. Basin formation followed an interval of felsic volcanism and weathering of underlying bedrock. The diagenetic evolution of the Thelon lasted about one billion years and was punctuated by fluid movement influenced by tectonic events. Early quartz cements formed in well-sorted, quartz-rich facies during diagenetic stage 1; fluids in which these overgrowths formed had ,18O values near 0, (Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water). Uranium-rich apatite cement (P1) also formed during diagenetic stage 1 indicating that oxygenated, uranium-bearing pore water was present in the basin early in its diagenetic history. Syntaxial quartz cement (Q1) formed in water with ,18O from ,4 to ,0.8, in diagenetic stage 2. Diagenetic stage 3 occurred when the Thelon Formation was at ca. 5 km depth, and was marked by extensive illitization, alteration of detrital grains, and uranium mineralization. Basin-wide, illite crystallized at ,200 °C by fluids with ,18O values of 5,9, and ,D values of ,60 to ,31,, consistent with evolved basinal brines. Tectonism caused by the accretion of Nena at ca. 1600 Ma may have provided the mechanism for brine movement during deep burial. Diagenetic stage 4 is associated with fracturing and emplacement of mafic dikes at ca. 1300 Ma, quartz cement (Q3) in fractures and vugs, further illitization, and recrystallization of uraninite (U2). Q3 cements have fluid inclusions that suggest variable salinities, ,18O values of 1.5,9,, and ,D values of ,97 to ,83, for stage 4 brines. K-feldspar and Mg-chlorite formed during diagenetic stage 5 at ca. 1000 Ma in upper stratigraphic sequences, and in the west. These phases precipitated from low-temperature, isotopically distinct fluids. Their distribution indicates that the basin hydrostratigraphy remained partitioned for >600 Ma. [source]

Provenance of siliciclastic and hybrid turbiditic arenites of the Eocene Hecho Group, Spanish Pyrenees: implications for the tectonic evolution of a foreland basin

BASIN RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010
M. A. Caja
ABSTRACT The Eocene Hecho Group turbidite system of the Aínsa-Jaca foreland Basin (southcentral Pyrenees) provides an excellent opportunity to constrain compositional variations within the context of spatial and temporal distribution of source rocks during tectonostratigraphic evolution of foreland basins. The complex tectonic setting necessitated the use of petrographic, geochemical and multivariate statistical techniques to achieve this goal. The turbidite deposits comprise four unconformity-bounded tectonostratigraphic units (TSU), consisting of quartz-rich and feldspar-poor sandstones, calclithites rich in extrabasinal carbonates and hybrid arenites dominated by intrabasinal carbonates. The sandstones occur exclusively in TSU-2, whereas calclithites and hybrid arenites occur in the overlying TSU-3, TSU-4 and TSU-5. The calclithites were deposited at the base of each TSU and hybrid arenites in the uppermost parts. Extrabasinal carbonate sources were derived from the fold-and-thrust belt (mainly Cretaceous and Palaeocene limestones). Conversely, intrabasinal carbonate grains were sourced from foramol shelf carbonate factories. This compositional trend is attributed to alternating episodes of uplift and thrust propagation (siliciclastic and extrabasinal carbonates supplies) and subsequent episodes of development of carbonate platforms supplying intrabasinal detrital grains. The quartz-rich and feldspar-poor composition of the sandstones suggests derivation from intensely weathered cratonic basement rocks during the initial fill of the foreland basin. Successive sediments (calclithites and hybrid arenites) were derived from older uplifted basement rocks (feldspar-rich and, to some extent, rock fragments-rich sandstones), thrust-and-fold belt deposits and from coeval carbonate platforms developed at the basin margins. This study demonstrates that the integration of tectono-stratigraphy, petrology and geochemistry of arenites provides a powerful tool to constrain the spatial and temporal variation in provenance during the tectonic evolution of foreland basins. [source]