Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T07:15:27.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The progressive illitization of interstratified illite-smectite from Carboniferous sediments of Northern England and its relationship to organic maturity indicators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

G. Smart  and
T. Clayton
G. Smart
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO9 5NH
T. Clayton
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO9 5NH
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Interstratified illite-smectites from Carboniferous sediments from the Alston and Askrigg blocks and the intervening Stainmore trough of the northern Pennines, UK, were examined by XRD. Both blocks are underlain by Caledonian granites. During late Carboniferous times sediments overlying the Alston block were intruded by the Whin Sill. The percentage smectite in illite-smectite (%S in I/S) varies from ∼35% to <5% only homogeneous mudstones give consistent results. In the case of the Askrigg block and Stainmore trough, a good inverse correlation was found between %S in I/S and vitrinite reflectance. Both illitization of illite-smectite and vitrinite reflectance increase towards the centre of the block. This is thought to be related to high heat-flow centred about the granite basement. In the case of the Alston block, there is no direct relationship between clay and vitrinite data, vitrinite reflectance being controlled by the position and thickness of the Whin Sill. Except where close to the contact, the Whin Sill had no apparent effect on %S in I/S. As observed for the Askrigg block, %S in I/S is directly related to the position of the underlying granite. The progressive illitization of illite-smectites of low expandability is very slow when compared to vitrinite alteration in response to rapidly increasing temperature. Consequently, %S in I/S is a potential indicator of thermal maturation in situations where vitrinites, by virtue of their rapid response to increasing temperatures, fail to provide a regional view of heat-flow patterns.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 20 , Issue 4 , December 1985 , pp. 455 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ammosov, I.I., Babashkin, G.B. & Sharkova, L.S. (1975) [Bituminite of Lower Cambrian deposits in the Irkutsk oil and gas region]. Pp. 25–29 in: Palaeotemperatury zon Nefteobrazovaniya (Yeremin, I.V., editor). Nauka Press, Moscow.Google Scholar
Boles, J.R. & Franks, S.G. (1979) Clay diagenesis in Wilcox sandstones of Southwest Texas: implications of smectite diagenesis on sandstone cementation. J. Sedim. Petr. 49, 55–70.Google Scholar
Bott, M.H.P. (1967) Geophysical investigations of the northern Pennine basement rocks. Proc. Yorks. Geol Soc. 36, 139–168.Google Scholar
Burst, J.F. (1959) Post-diagenetic clay-mineral environmental relationships in the Gulf Coast Eocene. Clays Clay Miner. 6, 327–341.Google Scholar
Creaney, S. (1977) Rank variation and geothermometry of the Northern Pennine Orefield. PhD. Thesis, Univ. Newcastle-upon-Tyne.Google Scholar
Creaney, S. (1980) Petrographic texture and vitrinite reflectance variation on the Alston block, northeast England. Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc. 42, 553–580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunham, K.C. (1948) Geology of the North Pennine Orefield. Vol. 1, Tyne to Stainmore. HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Dunham, K.C. (1974) Granite beneath the Pennines in north Yorkshire. Proc. Yorks. Geol. Soc. 40, 191–194.Google Scholar
Eberl, D. & Hower, J. (1976) Kinetics of illite formation. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull 87, 1326–1330.Google Scholar
Fitch, F.J. & Miller, J.A. (1967) The age of the Whin Sill. J. Geol. 5, 233–250.Google Scholar
Francis, E.H. (1982) Magma and sediment: 1—Emplacement mechanisms of Late Carboniferous tholeiite sills in northern Britain. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 139, 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard, J.J. (1981) Lithium and potassium saturation of illite-smectite clays from interlaminated shales and sandstones. Clays Clay Miner. 29, 136–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hower, J., Eslinger, E.B., Hower, M.E. & Perry, E.A. (1976) Mechanism of burial metamorphism of argillaceous sediment: 1) Mineralogical and chemical evidence. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 87, 725–737.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inoue, A. & Utada, M. (1983) Further investigations of a conversion series of dioctahedral mica/smectites in the Shinzan hydrothermal alteration area, northeast Japan. Clays Clay Miner. 31, 401–412.Google Scholar
Jaeger, J.C. (1964) Thermal effects of intrusion. Geophysics Rev. 2, 443–446.Google Scholar
Karweil, J. (1956) Die metamorphose der kohlen nom standpunkt der physikalischen chemic. Z. Deut. Geol. 107, 132–139.Google Scholar
Kisch, H.J. (1983) Mineralogy and petrology of burial diagenesis (burial metamorphism) and incipient metamorphism in clastic rocks. Pp. 289–541 in: Diagenesis in Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks 2 (Larsen, G. & Chilingar, G. V., editors). Elsevier, Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Lahann, R.W. & Roberson, H.E. (1980) Dissolution of silica from montmorillonite: effect of solution chemistry. Geochem. Cosmochim. Acta 44, 1937–1944.Google Scholar
Lopatin, N.V. (1971) Temperature and geologic time as factors in coalification. Akad. Nauk. SSSR Geologicheskaya Izvestiya 3, 95–106.Google Scholar
Lovering, T.S. (1935) Theory of heat conduction applied to geological problems. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 46, 69–94.Google Scholar
McDowell, S.D. & Elders, W.A. (1980) Authigenic layer silicate minerals in borehole Elmore 1, Salton Sea Geothermal Field, California U.S.A. Contr. Miner. Petr. 74, 293–310.Google Scholar
Nadeau, P.H., Wilson, M.J., McHardy, W.J. & Tait, J.M. (1984) Interparticle diffraction: a new concept for interstratification of clay minerals. Clay Miner. 19, 757–770.Google Scholar
Neruchev, S.G. & Parparova, G.M. (1972) [The role of geologic time in processes of metamorphism of coal and dispersed organic matter in rocks]. Akad. Nauk. SSSR Sibirisk., Otdeleniye Geologiya i Geofizika 10, 3–10.Google Scholar
Pearson, M.J., Watkins, O. & Small, J.S. (1982) Clay diagenesis and maturation in Northern Sea sediments. Proc. Int. Clay Conf. Bologna & Pavia, 665–675.Google Scholar
Pearson, M.J., Watkins, D., Pittion, J.L., Caston, D. & Small, J.S. (1983) Aspects of burial diagenesis, organic maturation and palaeothermal history of an area in the South Viking Graben, North Sea. Pp. 161–173 in: Petroleum Geochemistry and Exploration of Europe (Brooks, J., editor). Geological Society Special Publication 12, Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Perry, E.A. & Hower, J. (1970) Burial diagenesis in Gulf Coast pelitic sediments. Clays Clay Miner. 18, 165–177.Google Scholar
Price, L.C. (1983) Geologic time as a parameter in organic metamorphism and vitrinite reflectance as an absolute palaeogeothermometer. J. Petrol Geol. 6, 5–38.Google Scholar
Rayner, D.H. & Hemingway, J.E. (1974) The Geology and Mineral Resources of Yorkshire. Yorkshire Geological Society, Leeds.Google Scholar
Reynolds, R.C. (1980) Interstratified clay minerals. Pp. 249–304 in: Crystal Structures of Clay Minerals and their X-Ray Identification (Brindley, G. W. & Brown, G., editors). Mineralogical Society, London.Google Scholar
Reynolds, R.C. & Hower, J. (1970) The nature of interlayering in mixed-layer illite-montmorillonites. Clays Clay Miner. 18, 25–36.Google Scholar
Roberson, H.E. & Lahann, R.W. (1981) Smectite to illite conversion rates: effects of solution chemistry. Clays Clay Miner. 29, 129–135.Google Scholar
Robson, D.A. (1980) The Geology of Northeast England. Natural History Society Northumberland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.Google Scholar
Środoń, J.(1979) Correlation between coal and clay diagenesis in the Carboniferous of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. Proc. 6th Int. Clay Conf. Oxford, 251–260.Google Scholar
Środoń, J. (1980) Precise identification of illite/smectite interstratifications by X-ray powder diffraction. Clays Clay Miner. 28, 401–411.Google Scholar