Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:31:05.957Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geochemical constraints on the origin of enigmatic cemented chalks, Norfolk, UK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2008

G. WOOLHOUSE ,
J. E. ANDREWS ,
A. MARCA-BELL  and
P. F. DENNIS
G. WOOLHOUSE
Affiliation:
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
J. E. ANDREWS*
Affiliation:
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
A. MARCA-BELL
Affiliation:
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
P. F. DENNIS
Affiliation:
School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK
*
†Author for correspondence: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Very hard cemented chalk stacks and crusts found locally in the upper part of the Cretaceous Chalk of north Norfolk, UK, are related to solution features. The solution features, mainly pipes and caves, formed after deposition of the overlying Middle Pleistocene Wroxham Crag, probably by routing of sub-glacial, or glacial, melt-waters derived from late Pleistocene glaciers. New geochemical (particularly stable isotope) data shows that cementation of the chalks, although related spatially to the solution features, was not caused by glacier-derived waters. The carbon isotope composition of the chalk cements is typically around −9.5‰, indicative of biologically active soils. Moreover, the oxygen isotope compositions of the cements, around −5‰, are incompatible with water δ18O values much below −9 to −10‰ (which probably precludes isotopically negative glacier-derived water), as resulting palaeo-temperatures are below zero. Taken together, the isotope data suggest chalk cementation occurred under interglacial conditions similar to the present. Dissolved calcium carbonate for cementation came from dissolution of reworked chalk in overlying MIS 12 glacial tills.

Keywords

chalkcemented chalkcalcitepalaeotemperaturestable isotopestrace elements
Type
Original Article
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 146 , Issue 2 , March 2009 , pp. 291 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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.)

Footnotes

*

Present address: HR Wallingford, Howbery Park, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8BA, UK.

References

Andrews, J. E. 2006. Palaeoclimatic records from stable isotopes in riverine tufas: synthesis and review. Earth Science Reviews 75, 85–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, J. E., Riding, R. & Dennis, P. F. 1993. Stable isotopic compositions of Recent freshwater cyanobacterial carbonates from the British Isles: local and regional environmental controls. Sedimentology 40, 303–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, T. C. 2004. Book Review: Palaeowaters in Central Europe: evolution of groundwater since the late Pleistocene. Journal of Quaternary Science 19, 317–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnaby, T. P. 1950. The tubular chalk stacks of Sheringham. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 61, 226–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Candy, I. 2002. Formation of a rhizogenic calcrete during a glacial stage (Oxygen Isotope Stage 12): its palaeoenvironmental and stratigraphic significance. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 113, 259–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Candy, I., Rose, J. & Lee, J. 2006. A seasonally ‘dry’ interglacial climate in eastern England during the early Middle Pleistocene: palaeopedological and stable isotopic evidence from Pakefield, UK. Boreas 35, 255–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerling, T. E. 1984. The stable isotopic composition of modern soil carbonate and its relationship to climate. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 71, 229–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darling, W. G. 2004. Hydrological factors in the interpretation of stable isotope proxy data present and past: a European perspective. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 743–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darling, W. G., Edmunds, W. M. & Smedley, P. L. 1997. The isotopic composition of palaeowaters in the British Isles. Applied Geochemistry 12, 813–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dever, L., Durand, R., Fontes, J. C. & Vachier, P. 1983. Etude pedogenetique et isotopiques des neoformations de calcite dans un sol sur craie. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 47, 2079–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emrich, K., Ehhalt, D. H. & Vogel, J. C. 1970. Carbon isotope fractionation during the precipitation of calcium carbonate. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 8, 363–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feast, N. A., Hiscock, K. H., Dennis, P. F. & Bottrell, S. H. 1997. Controls on stable isotope profiles in the Chalk aquifer of north-east Norfolk, UK, with special reference to dissolved sulphate. Applied Geochemistry 12, 803–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hays, P. D. & Grossman, E. L. 1991. Oxygen isotopes in meteoric calcite cements as indicators of continental palaeoclimate. Geology 19, 441–4.Google Scholar
Hiscock, K. M. 1991. The hydrogeology of the Chalk aquifer system of North Norfolk. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Norfolk 41, 3–43.Google Scholar
Hiscock, K. M., Dennis, P. F., Saynor, P. R. & Thomas, M. O. 1996. Hydrochemical and stable isotope evidence for the extent and nature of the effective Chalk aquifer of north Norfolk, UK. Journal of Hydrology 180, 79–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkyns, H. C., Gale, A. S. & Corfield, R. M. 1994. Carbon and oxygen isotope stratigraphy of the English Chalk and Italian Scaglia and its palaeoclimate significance. Geological Magazine 131, 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johansen, M. B. & Surlyk, F. 1990. Brachiopods and the stratigraphy of the upper Campanian and lower Maastrichtian Chalk of Norfolk, England. Palaeontology 33, 823–72.Google Scholar
Lacelle, D. 2007. Environmental setting, (micro)morphologies and stable C–O isotope composition of cold climate carbonate precipitates – a review and evaluation of their potential as paleoclimatic proxies. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 1670–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. R., Booth, S. J., Hamblin, R. J. O., Jarrow, A. M., Kessler, H., Moorlock, B. S. P., Morigi, A. N., Palmer, A., Pawley, S. J., Riding, J. B. & Rose, J. 2004. A new stratigraphy for the glacial deposits around Lowestoft, Great Yarmouth, North Walsham and Cromer, East Anglia. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Norfolk 53, 3–60.Google Scholar
McArthur, J. M. 1995. Evolution of marine 87Sr/86Sr during the Cenomanian-Early Maastrichtian, determined from the Chalk of Norfolk. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Norfolk 42, 3–23.Google Scholar
McDermott, F. 2004. Palaeo-climate reconstruction from stable isotope variations in speleothems: a review. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 901–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mortimore, R. N. 1997. The Chalk of Sussex and Kent. Geologist's Association Guide no. 57. London: The Geologist's Association, 140 pp.Google Scholar
Pawley, S. M., Bailey, R. M., Rose, J., Moorlock, B. S. P., Hamblin, R. J. O., Booth, S. J. & Lee, J. R. 2008. Age limits on Middle Pleistocene glacial sediments from OSL dating, North Norfolk, UK. Quaternary Science Reviews 27 (13–14), 1363–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pawley, S. M., Rose, J., Lee, J. R., Moorlock, B. S. P. & Hamblin, R. J. O. 2004. Middle Pleistocene sedimentology and lithostratigraphy of Weybourne, north east Norfolk. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 115, 25–42.Google Scholar
Peake, N. B. & Hancock, J. M. 1961. The Upper Cretaceous of Norfolk. Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society 19, 293–339.Google Scholar
Peake, N. B. & Hancock, J. M. 1970. The Upper Cretaceous of Norfolk [reprinted with addenda and corrigenda]. In The Geology of Norfolk (eds Larwood, G. P. & Funnell, B. M.), pp. 293–339. Geological Society of Norfolk. London: Headley Brothers.Google Scholar
Pitchford, A. J. 1991. A new correlation within the Belemnitella mucronata zone (Campanian, Upper Cretaceous) of Norfolk. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Norfolk 40, 25–32.Google Scholar
Rose, J., Moorlock, B. S. P. & Hamblin, R. J. O. 2001. Pre-Anglian fluvial and coastal deposits in eastern England: lithostratigraphy and palaeoenvironments. Quaternary International 79, 5–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scholle, P. A. 1977. Chalk diagenesis and its relation to petroleum exploration: oil from Chalks, a modern miracle. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 61, 982–1009.Google Scholar
Scholle, P. A., Albrechtson, T. & Tirsgaard, H. 1998. Formation and diagenesis of bedding cycles in uppermost Cretaceous chalk of the Dan Field of the Danish North Sea. Sedimentology 45, 223–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strong, G. E., Giles, J. R. A. & Wright, V. P. 1992. A Holocene calcrete from North Yorkshire, England: implications for interpreting palaeoclimates using calcretes. Sedimentology 39, 333–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thurston, E. & Whittlesea, P. 2002. Norfolk mystery explained. Geology Today 18, 15–16.Google Scholar