K-Ar evidence for a Mesozoic thermal event overprinting burial diagenesis of the Carboniferous Upper Silesia Coal Basin

• Autorzy: Banaś M. , Bylina P. , Środoń J.
• Konferencja: International Congress on the Jurassic System (7 ; 06-18.09.2006 ; Kraków, Poland)
• Języki publikacji: EN

Abstrakty

EN

K-Ar dating of mixed-layer illite-smectite from clay fractions extracted from pyroclastic horizons was used to address the controversy about the age and mechanism of the thermal alteration of Carboniferous rocks from the Upper Silesia Coal Basin (USCB). The clay fractions were investigated by x-ray powder diffraction (XRD) in order to select for dating the samples rich in illite-smectite and to evaluate the K-Ar dates for possible contamination by K-bearing pre-diagenetic minerals of pyroclastic or epiclastic origin. The K-Ar dates document intense Variscan tectonic burial illitization produced by thrusting (ca. 290 Ma) in the SW of the basin, and the lack of intense burial illitization in the NE, which is consistent with sedimentological models of the basin. The burial illitization in its final phase (<30% S in illite-smectite) involved incorporation of measurable amounts of ammonium cation in the illite structure (substitution for potassium). Advanced illitization in the NE of the basin is much younger than its tectonic inversion (uplift and erosion started in Permian), and the corresponding K-Ar dates have to be interpreted as the result of a Mesozoic thermal event, which produced widespread pervasive illitization at shallow depth. This event was dated at 175 Ma, but it may have started earlier and could have lasted longer. This conclusion is consistent with widespread evidence of a major Mesozoic thermal event all over Central Europe, produced by rifting and lithospheric thinning during the opening of the Tethys and Atlantic oceans. This study demonstrates that smectite illitization histories may be very complex, and that the nature of the illitization mechanism results in mixed K-Ar dates encompassing pro-longed or multiple illitization histories. Dating of several grain-size fractions may help unravel such histories. When a calibration using data from Neogene sedimentary basins is applied, vitrinite reflectance and % S in I-S indicate similar paleotemperatures of tectonic burial diagenesis in the USCB, but they produce very different estimates of the temperature of the thermal event.

Słowa kluczowe

EN

bentonites; burial diagenesis; illite-smectite; K-Ar dating; maximum paleotemperatures; Mesozoic thermal event; Upper Silesian Coal Basin

• Wydawca: Państwowy Instytut Geologiczny - Państwowy Instytut Badawczy
• Czasopismo: Volumina Jurassica
• Rocznik: 2006
• Tom: Vol. 4, no. 1
• Strony: 39--39

Twórcy

autor

Banaś M.

autor

Bylina P.

autor

Środoń J.

• Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Research Centre in Kraków, ul. Senacka 1, PL-31002 Kraków, Poland,