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Diagenetic carbonate and evaporite minerals in Rotliegend aeolian sandstones of the Southern North Sea: their nature and relationship to secondary porosity development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

K. Pye  and
D. H. Krinsley
K. Pye
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ
D. H. Krinsley
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
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Abstract

Deeply buried (> 3·5 km) Rotliegend aeolian sandstones in the Southern North Sea Basin display a number of interesting diagenetic features including (i) zoned iron-rich carbonate cements, (ii) anhydrite, halite and baryte cements, (iii) at least two generations of authigenic illite, and (iv) significant secondary porosity created by cement and framework-grain dissolution. The creation and destruction of secondary porosity is the result of changes in porewater chemistry during burial and subsequent uplift. Three pore-fluid regimes can be identified: (1) alkaline, oxidizing conditions during shallow to intermediate burial; (2) acid, reducing conditions during intermediate to deep burial; (3) alkaline, reducing conditions during deep burial and uplift. The transition from stage 1 to stage 2 was probably caused by expulsion of waters from the underlying Carboniferous shales. The transition to stage 3 probably began when faulting associated with uplift allowed invasion by alkaline fluids derived from Zechstein sediments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , October 1986 , pp. 443 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1986

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