Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T12:30:19.608Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Illitization and organic maturity in Silurian sediments from the Southern Uplands of Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

R. B. Pearce
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO9 5NH, UK
T. Clayton
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Southampton, Southampton SO9 5NH, UK
A. E. S. Kemp
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of Southampton, Southampton SO9 5NH, UK

Abstract

Discrepancies between clay mineral and organic indicators of very low-grade metamorphism have been observed from the Southern Uplands of Scotland. In the Southern Belt, I-S expandability ranges from 18–5% and chitinozoan reflectance from 0·8–2·1% R0 mean; a clear correlation exists between I-S expandability and organic maturity. At Dob's Linn in the Central Belt, I-S expandabilities range from 18–10%, and chitinozoan reflectance from 3·6–4·8% R0 mean. The results from Dob's Linn show anomalously high I-S expandabilities with respect to maturity, both in comparison with the Southern Belt and with previous work from other regions. K-feldspar is present in variable amounts in the Southern Belt, but is not detectable by XRD at Dob's Linn. Low K+ activity is believed to have resulted in a slower reaction rate at Dob's Linn, and a consequent “lag” in I-S expandability with respect to the Southern Belt.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1991

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

Ahn, H.R. & Peacor, D.R. (1986) Transmission analytical electron microscopy of the smectite-to-illite transition. Clays Clay Miner., 34, 165–179.Google Scholar
Altaner, S.P. (1990) Calculation of K diffusional rates in bentonite beds. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 53, 923931.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altaner, S.P., Hower, J., Whitney, G. & Aronson, J.L. (1984) Model for K-bentonite formation: Evidence from zoned K-bentonites in the disturbed belt, Montana. Geology, 12, 412–415.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batchelor, & Weir, (1988) Metabentonite geochemistry: magmatic cycles and graptolie extinctions at Dob's Linn, southern Scotland. Trans. R. Soc. Edinb., 79, 19–41.Google Scholar
Barker, C.E. & Pawlewicz, M.J. (1986) The correlation of vitrinite reflectance with maximum temperature in humic organic matter. Pp. 79-93 in: Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences 5. Palaeogeothermics(Buntebarth, G. & Stegena, L., editors). Springer-Verlag, Berlin.Google Scholar
Bertrand, R. & Heroux, Y. (1987) Chitinozoan, graptolite and scolecodont reflectance as an alternative to vitrinite and pyrobitumen reflectance in Ordovician and Silurian strata, Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol. Bull., 71, 951–957.Google Scholar
Blank, P. & Seifert, W. (1976) Zur Untersuchung diagenetischer Tonmineralbildungen und deren experimentelle Modellierung. Z. angew. Geol., 22, 560–564.Google Scholar
Eberl, D.D., & Srodon, J. (1988) Ostwald ripening and interparticle-diffraction effects for illite crystals. Am. Miner., 73, 1335–1345.Google Scholar
Eberl, D.D., Srodon, J., Lee, M., Nadeau, P.H. & Northrop, H.R. (1987) Sericite from the Silverton caldera, Colorado: Correlation among structure, composition, origin and particle thickness. Am. Miner., 72, 914–934.Google Scholar
Elliot, W.C. & Aronson, J.L. (1987) Alleghanian episode of K-bentonite illitization in the southern Appalachian Basin. Geology,, 15, 735–739.Google Scholar
Goodarzi, F. (1985) Reflected light microscopy of chitinozoan fragments. Mar. Petrol. Geol, 2, 72–78.Google Scholar
Hillier, S. & Clayton, T. (1989) Illite/smectite diagenesis in Devonian lacustrine mudrocks from northern Scotland and its relationship to organic maturity indicators. Clay Miner., 24, 181196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hillier, S. & Marshall, J. (1988) A rapid technique to make polished thin sections of sedimentary organic matter concentrates. J. Sed. Pet, 58, 754–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hower, J., Eslinger, E. V., 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
Huff, W.D. & Turkmenoglu, A.G. (1981) Chemical characteristics and origin of Ordovician K-bentonites along the Cincinnati Arch. Clays Clay Miner. 29, 113123. Google Scholar
Inoue, A.? Velde B,, Meunier, A. & Touchard, G. (1988) Mechanism of illite formation during smectite-to-illite conversion in a hydrothermal system. Am. Miner., 73 13251334.Google Scholar
Jiang, W.T., Essene, E.J. & Peacor, D.R. (1990) Transmission electron microscopic study of coexisting pyrophyllite and muscovite: direct evidence for the metastability of illite. Clays Clay Miner., 38, 225–240.Google Scholar
Karweil, J. (1956) Die Metamorphose der Kohlen vom Standtpunkt der physikalischen Chemie. Z. Deut. Geol., 107, 132139.Google Scholar
Kemp, A.E.S. (1986) Tectonostratigraphy of the Southern Belt of the Southern Uplands. Scott. J. Geol., 22, 241256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemp, A.E.S., Oliver, G J.H. & Baldwin, J.R. (1985) Low grade metamorphism and accretion tectonics: Southern Uplands terrane, Scotland. Mineral. Mag., 49, 335–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kisch, H.J. (1987) Correlation between indicators of very low-grade metamorphism. Pp. 227-300 in: Low Temperature Metamorphism.(Frey, M., editor). Blackie, Chapman & Hall, New York.Google Scholar
Lagios, E. & Hipkin, R.G. (1979) The Tweedale Granite—a newly discovered batholith in the Southern Uplands. Nature, 280, 672–675.Google Scholar
Leggett, J.K. McKerrow, W.S. & Casey, D.M. (1982) The anatomy of a Lower Palaeozoic accretionary forearc: the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Pp. 495520 in: Trench-Forearc Geology.(Leggett, J.K., editor.) Spec. Publ. 10, Geol. Soc., London.Google Scholar
Leggett, J.K., McKerrow, W.S. & Soper, N.J. (1983) A model for the crustal evolution of southern Scotland. Tectonics, 187210. Google Scholar
Lippmann, F. (1981) Stability diagrams involving day minerals. Pp. 153-171 in: 8th Conf. on Clay Mineralogy and Petrology, Teplice 1979(Konta, J., editor). Univerzita Karlova, Praha, Czechoslovakia.Google Scholar
Lopatin, N.V. (1971) Temperature and geologic time as factors in coalification. Akad. Nauk. SSSR. Geol. Izv., 3, 95106 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Lovering, T.S. (1935) Theory of heat conduction applied to geological problems. Bull. Geol. Soc. Am., 46, 69–94.Google Scholar
McKerrow, W.S., (1988) Wenlock to Givetian deformation in the British Isles and the Canadian Appalachians. Pp. 437448 in: The Caledonian-Appalachian Orogen.(Harris, A.L. & Fettes, D. J., editors). Spec. Publ. 38, Geol. Soc. London.Google Scholar
Marshall, J.E. A. (1989) Determination of thermal maturity. Pp. 511515 in: Palaeobiology: A Synthesis.(Briggs, D.E.G. & Crowther, P.R., editors). Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford.Google Scholar
Merriman, R.J. & Roberts, B. (1990) Metabentonites in the Moffat Shale Group, Southern Uplands of Scotland: Geochemical evidence of ensialic marginal basin volcanism. Geol. Mag., 127, 259–271.Google Scholar
Morton, J.P. (1985) Rb-Sr dating of diagenesis and source age of clays in Upper Devonian black shales of Texas. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 96, 1043–1049.Google Scholar
Nadeau, P.H., Wilson, M.J., McHardy, W.J. & Tait, J.M. (1985) The conversion of smectite to illite during diagenesis: evidence from some illitic clays from bentonites in sandstones. Mineral. Mag., 49, 393–400.CrossRefGoogle 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 (in Russian).Google Scholar
Oliver, G.J., SmellieJ.L., Thomas, L.J., Casey, D.M., Kemp, A.E.S., Evans, L.J., Baldwin, J.R. & Hepworth, B.C. (1984) Early Palaeozoic metamorphic history of the Midland Valley, Southern Uplands-Longford-Down Massif and the Lake District, British Isles. Trans. R. Soc. Edinb., 75, 245–258.CrossRefGoogle 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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pytte, A.M. (1982) The kinetics of the smectite to illite reaction in contact metamorphic shales. MS thesis, Dartmouth College, USA.Google Scholar
Ramseyer, K. & Boles, J.R. (1986) Mixed-layer illite/smectite minerals in Tertiary sandstones and shales, San Joaquin basin, California. Clays Clay Miner., 34, 115–124.Google Scholar
Roberson, H.E. & Lahann, R.W. (1981) Smectite to illite conversion rates: effects of solution chemistry. Clays Clay Miner., 29, 129–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smart, G. & Clayton, T. (1985) The progressive illitization of interstratified illite-smectite from Carboniferous sediments of northern England and its relationship to organic maturity indicators. Clay Miner., 20, 455466.Google Scholar
Środoń, J. (1980) Precise identification of illite/smectite interstratifications by X-ray powder diffraction. Clays Clay Miner., 28, 401–411.Google Scholar
Środoń, J. (1984) X-ray powder diffraction identification of illitic materials. Clays Clay Miner., 32, 337–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tricker, P.M. (1990) Hydrocarbon source potential of the Lower Palaeozoic of Wales and the Welsh Borderlands (abstr.). North Sea 90, April 1990, Nottingham. Organisers: Biostratigraphy Research Group, BGS; the Commision Internationale De Microfiore Du Palaeozoique.Google Scholar
Watson, S.W. (1976) The sedimentary geochemistry of the Moffat Shales–;a carbonaceous sequence in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. PhD thesis, Univ. St. Andrews, UK.Google Scholar