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Kaolinite growth during pore-water mixing: isotopic data from Palaeocene sands, North Sea, UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

R. N. T. Stewart ,
A. E. Fallick  and
R. S. Haszeldine
R. N. T. Stewart
Affiliation:
CRAG-Centre for Research into Applied Geoscience, Department of Geology and Applied Geology, University of Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
A. E. Fallick
Affiliation:
Isotope Geology Unit, Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride
R. S. Haszeldine
Affiliation:
CRAG-Centre for Research into Applied Geoscience, Department of Geology and Applied Geology, University of Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK
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Abstract

Stable isotopic and petrographic data have been used to interpret conditions for the formation of authigenic kaolinite within Lower Palaeocene sands, Central North Sea. Two wells within the Witch Ground Graben were sampled (1975 m to 2795 m). Texturally early calcite concretions have isotopic compositions (δ18O = 18.3–21.6‰ SMOW) which indicate that they were precipitated in predominantly meteoric waters. The isotopic composition of later vermiform kaolinite (δ18O = 14.8–17.7‰ SMOW and δD = −53 to −71‰ SMOW) indicates that kaolinite precipitated at around 45–70°C, from a mixed meteoric-marine pore-water (δ18O = −5 to −3‰ SMOW). These modelled precipitation temperatures are consistent with the paragenetic sequence and consequently post-precipitation hydrogen isotope exchange between kaolinite and the pore-waters is presumed not to have occurred. It is inferred that the original depositional marine pore-waters were flushed out during the late Palaeocene (54.8 Ma) by a head of meteoric water from the East Shetland Platform. The Lower Palaeocene aquifer became closed to meteoric influx after marine transgression during the late Palaeocene (54.0 Ma). The remaining meteoric pore-waters in the sandstones became mixed with water from compacting marine muds surrounding the hydrostatically pressured sandstones.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 1994 , pp. 627 - 636
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1994

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