Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T04:54:23.638Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Microfabric, mineralogy and early diagenetic history of the Whitby Mudstone Formation (Toarcian), Cleveland Basin, U.K.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

K. Pye  and
D. H. Krinsley
K. Pye
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
D. H. Krinsley
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Whitby Mudstone Formation in northeast England contains three shale facies (normal, restricted and bituminous) which have previously been differentiated on the basis of sedimentary structures and faunal assemblages. This paper shows that the three facies can also be differentiated by mineralogical, geochemical and microtextural criteria determined using BSEM, EDXRA, XRD and XRF. The bituminous shale facies consists of finely laminated shales containing an early diagenetic mineral assemblage dominated by pyrite, calcite and dolomite. The weakly laminated restricted facies shales contain an early diagenetic assemblage dominated by pyrite. The normal facies shales are very weakly laminated and contain siderite in addition to pyrite. The geochemical conditions which left a dominant early diagenetic imprint on the three facies are interpreted to be carbon-rich sulphidic, carbon-poor sulphidic and very carbon-poor sulphidic respectively.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 123 , Issue 3 , May 1986 , pp. 191 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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

Barnard, P. C. & Cooper, B. S. 1983. A review of geochemical data related to the northwest European Gas Province. In Petroleum Geochemistry and Exploration of Europe (ed. Brooks, J.), pp. 19–33. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Berner, R. A. 1981. A new geochemical classification of sedimentary environments. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 51, 359–65.Google Scholar
Berner, R. A. 1984. Sedimentary pyrite formation: an update. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta 48, 605–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campos, H. S. & Hallam, A. 1979. Diagenesis of English Jurassic limestones as inferred from oxygen and carbon isotope analysis. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 45, 23–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, F. W. 1924. Data of geochemistry. United States Geological Survey Bulletin 770, 841 pp.Google Scholar
Coleman, M. L. & Raiswell, R. 1981. Carbon, oxygen and sulphur isotope variations in concretions from the Upper Lias of N.E. England. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta 45, 329–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gad, M. A., Catt, J. A. & Le Riche, H. H. 1969. Geochemistry of the Whitbian (Upper Lias) sediments of the Yorkshire coast. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 37, 105–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallam, A. 1967. An environmental study of the Upper Domerian and Lower Toarcian in Great Britain. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 252, 393–445.Google Scholar
Hallam, A. 1981. A revised sea level curve for the early Jurassic. Journal of the Geological Society 138, 735–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hallam, A. & Bradshaw, M. J. 1979. Bituminous shales and oolitic ironstones as indicators of transgressions and regressions. Journal of the Geological Society 136, 157–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hemingway, J. E. 1974. Jurassic. In The Geology and Mineral Resources of Yorkshire (eds. Rayner, D. H. and Hemingway, J. E.), pp. 161–223. Yorkshire Geological Society.Google Scholar
Hemingway, J. E. & Riddler, G. P. 1982. Basin inversion in North Yorkshire. Transactions of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Section B, Applied Earth Science 91, B175–B181.Google Scholar
Howarth, M. K. 1962. The Jet Rock Series and the Alum Shale Series of the Yorkshire coast. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 303, 381–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howarth, M. K. 1973. The stratigraphy and ammonite fauna of the Upper Liassic Grey Shales of the Yorkshire coast. Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Geology) 24, 238–77.Google Scholar
Knox, R. W. O'B. 1984. Lithostratigraphy and depositional history of the late Toarcian sequence at Ravenscar, Yorkshire. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 45, 99–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Riche, H. H. 1959. The distribution of certain trace elements in the Lower Lias of southern England. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta 16, 101–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maynard, J. B. 1982. Extension of Berner's ‘New geochemical classification of sedimentary environments’ to ancient sediments. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 52, 1325–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, K. A. 1979. A classification of Jurassic marine shale sequences: an example from the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) of Great Britain. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoecology 26, 117–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, K. A. 1980. Comparison of major sequences of organic-rich mud deposition in the British Jurassic. Journal of the Geological Society 137, 157–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, J. H. 1984. Lithostratigraphical nomenclature of the Lias Group in the Yorkshire Basin. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 45, 51–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, K. 1981. Marshrock formed by iron sulphide and siderite cementation in saltmarsh sediments. Nature 294, 650–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, K. 1985. Electron microscope analysis of zoned dolomite rhombs in the Jet Rock Formation (Lower Toarcian) of the Whitby area, U.K. Geological Magazine 122, 279–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, K. & Krinsley, D. H. 1983 a. Mudrocks examined by backscattered electron microscopy. Nature 301, 412–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, K. & Krinsley, D. H. 1983 b. Interlayered clay stacks in Jurassic shales. Nature 304, 618–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pye, K. & Krinsley, D. H. 1984. Petrographic examination of sedimentary rocks in the SEM using backscattered electron detectors. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 54, 877–88.Google Scholar
Raiswell, R. & Plant, J. 1980. The incorporation of trace elements into pyrite during diagenesis of black shales, Yorkshire, England. Economic Geology 75, 684–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rawson, P. F., Greensmith, J. T. & Shalaby, S. E. 1983. Coarsening upwards cycles in the uppermost Staithes and Cleveland Ironstone Formations (Lower Jurassic) of the Yorkshire coast, England. Proceedings of the Geologists Association 94, 91–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rickard, D. T. 1975. Kinetics and mechanism of pyrite formation at low temperatures. American Journal of Science 275, 636–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turekian, K. K. & Wedepohl, K. H. 1961. Distribution of the elements in some major units of the earth's crust. Geological Society of America Bulletin 72, 175–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S. H., Shaw, H. P. & Huggett, J. M. 1984. The use of backscattered electron imaging for the petrographic study of sandstones and shales. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 54, 487–94.Google Scholar