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Micromilieu-controlled glauconitization in fecal pellets at Oker (Central Germany)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

A. Baldermann ,
G. H. Grathoff  and
C. Nickel
A. Baldermann*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahnstraβe 17a, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
G. H. Grathoff
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahnstraβe 17a, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
C. Nickel
Affiliation:
Department of Geography and Geology, University of Greifswald, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahnstraβe 17a, 17487 Greifswald, Germany
*
*E-mail: baldermann@tugraz.at
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Abstract

Although numerous models for the formation of glauconite have been presented, the precise process and micro-environment of glauconitization are still poorly constrained. We characterize the special micromilieu of glauconitization developed during early diagenesis and present a model for glauconite formation in fecal pellets.

Glauconitization at Oker (Central Germany) occurred predominantly in fecal pellets deposited in a shallow marine-lagoonal environment during the Kimmeridgian. Within the fecal pellets, rapid oxidation of organic matter provides the post-depositional, physicochemical conditions favourable for glauconitization. Replacements of matrix calcite, dissolution of detrital quartz, K-feldspar, and clay minerals, and Fe redox reactions were observed within the early micro-environment, followed by the precipitation of euhedral pyrite, matrix-replacive dolomite, and megaquartz accompanied by I-S formation as thin section analyses and SEM observations show. Carbonate geochemical compositions based on ICP-OES and stable oxygen and carbon isotope signatures demonstrate that glauconite formation started in a suboxic environment at a pH of 7–8 and a temperature of 22±3°C to 37±2°C at maximum.

TEM-EDX-SAED and XRD analyses on separated glauconite fecal pellets and on the <2 μm clay mineral fraction reveal the predominance of authigenic 1Md-glauconite, 1Md-glauconite-smectite, and 1Mdcis-vacant I-S, besides accessory detrital 2M1-illite and montmorillonite. Kinetic modelling of the glauconite (93–94% Fe-illite layers and 6–7% Fe-smectite layers, R3) and of I-S (66–68% Al-illite layers and 32–34% Al-smectite layers, R1) leads us to conclude that the I-S formed solely by slow burial diagenesis, whereas the glauconite formed close to the seafloor, suggesting significantly faster kinetics of the glauconitization reaction compared with smectite-illitization related to burial diagenesis. Thermodynamically, the substitution of octahedral Al3+ for Fe3+ and Mg2+ during the Fe-Mg-smectite to glauconite reaction via the formation of glauconite-smectite mixed-layered clay minerals may have resulted in a higher reaction rate for this low-temperature glauconitization process.

Keywords

glauconiteillite-smectiteXRDTEM-EDXmicromilieuOkerGermany
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 513 - 538
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2012

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Footnotes

†

Current Address: Institute of Applied Geosciences, Graz University of Technology, Austria

‡

Main authors

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