Mineralogy and origin of the upper Eastend and Whitemud Formations of south-central and southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta

1969 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 317-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. N. Byers
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Heavy Minerals ◽  
Major Constituent ◽  
Abrupt Decrease ◽  
South Central ◽  
Mechanical Weathering ◽  
Kaolinitic Clay

The Upper Cretaceous non-marine Whitemud Formation of south-central and southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta consists of kaolinitic, metamorphic lithic sands and silts, and kaolinitic clays. The sands and silts are not highly feldspathic as was originally thought. The major constituent is metamorphic lithic grains with minor kaolinitic clay and vermicular kaolin, clear angular quartz, chert, muscovite, and minor volcanic lithic grains and feldspar. The upper part of the Upper Cretaceous Eastend Formation, which conformably underlies the Whitemud Formation, consists of non-marine sands, silts, and clays. Kaolin is very rare. The bulk of the sands are composed of volcanic lithic grains with minor metamorphic lithic grains, clear angular quartz, chert, feldspar, muscovite, and biotite.The contact is characterized by the following changes from the Eastend Formation upward into the Whitemud Formation: an abrupt decrease in volcanic lithic grains and increase in metamorphic lithic grains; the appearance of kaolin and the disappearance of biotite and apatite; a slight increase in clear angular quartz and muscovite and a decrease in feldspar; a general increase in metamorphic heavy minerals; and an increase in the percentage of ilmenite (both as solitary grains and intergrown with magnetite), which is altered to leucoxene.On the basis of mineralogy, the Whitemud Formation is definitely a correlative of the Colgate Member of the Fox Hills Formation in Montana and North Dakota.The upper Eastend and Whitemud Formations were derived from Upper Cretaceous volcanic rocks, Precambrian and Paleozoic metamorphic rocks, and Paleozoic carbonates all situated in Montana. Upper Eastend sediments represent fast mechanical weathering of mountains of freshly extruded volcanic rocks, whereas the Whitemud sediments represent slow chemical weathering and leaching, which predominated once the mountainous volcanic rocks were worn down. This deep chemical weathering altered the volcanic tuffs and flows into kaolinitic clay at the source area; the kaolin of the Whitemud Formation is not derived from the weathering of feldspars at the site of deposition.It is suggested that the Frenchman and Ravenscrag Formations were also derived from Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary volcanic rocks in Montana.

scholarly journals HEAVY CLASTIC MINERALS AS AN INDICATOR OF GEODYNAMIC SETTINGS OF ACCUMULATION AND PROVENANCE OF CRETACEOUS SEDIMENTS OF THE WEST SAKHALIN TERRANE

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-86
Author(s):  
A.I. Malinovsky ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Heavy Minerals ◽  
Clastic Material ◽  
The West ◽  
Geodynamic Settings ◽  
Eurasian Continent ◽  
Ocean Boundary ◽  
By Products

The article discusses the results of studying heavy clastic minerals from the Cretaceous sandy rocks of the West Sakhalin Terrane, and also presents their paleogeodynamic interpretation. It is shown that in terms of mineralogical and petrographic parameters, the terrane sandstones correspond to typical graywackes and are petrogenic rocks formed mainly by destruction of igneous rocks of the source areas. The sediments were found to contain both sialic, granite-metamorphic association minerals, and femic, formed by products of the destruction of basic and ultrabasic volcanic rocks. The interpretation of the entire set of data on the content, distribution and microchemical composition of heavy minerals was carried out by comparing them with minerals from older rocks and modern sediments accumulated in known geodynamic settings. The results obtained indicate that during the Cretaceous, sedimentation occurred along the continent-ocean boundary in a basin associated with large-scale left-lateral transform movements of the Izanagi Plate relative to the Eurasian continent. The source area that supplied clastic material to that basin combined a sialic landmass composed of granite-metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, a mature deeply dissected ensialic island arc, and fragments of accretion prisms, in the structure of which involved ophiolites.

scholarly journals Provenance and weathering index of the Upper Cretaceous São Carlos Formation and its tectonic significance in the eastern Bauru Basin, SE Brazil

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-94
Author(s):  
Lara Ferreira Neves ◽  
Alessandro Batezelli
Keyword(s):  
Trace Elements ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Sedimentary Basins ◽  
Major And Trace Elements ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Weathering Index ◽  
Se Brazil ◽  
Eastern Border

Geochemistry of major and trace elements has been used as an important tool for the study of provenance and tectonic and climatic evolution of sedimentary basins. The São Carlos Formation is an Upper Cretaceous unit that lies on the eastern border of the Bauru Basin. Despite the paleontological and paleodepositional studies performed in this unit in the last years, little is known about the correspondence between tectonic and climatic conditions acting during the first stages of sedimentation. The hypothesis of this paper is to evaluate São Carlos and Araçatuba formations and understand the evolution of the eastern border of the basin. Thus, were conducted geochemical studies using X-ray fluorescence on sandstones, siltstones, and shales from the São Carlos Formation. According to the chemical weathering index, which presented values ranging from 57.12 to 71.58%, the oxides of major elements indicate that moderate weathering processes affected the source area, possibly associated with the arid-semiarid climate. Alkaline rocks, granites, gneisses, and metasediments were the main lithotypes of the source area. Ternary diagrams show that the tectonic environment was equivalent to the passive continental margin, coinciding with the Serra do Mar and, secondarily, Alto Paranaíba Uplift regions. Based on major and trace elements, their ratios, and published data on the basin, was elaborated a paleogeographic model of the eastern border of the Bauru Basin, concluding that the source area of the sediments was constituted by intermediate and felsic rocks, sometimes recycled by sedimentary processes.

scholarly journals Geochemistry of Recent Brahmaputra River Sediments: Provenance, Tectonics, Source Area Weathering and Depositional Environment

Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 813
Author(s):  
Md Aminur Rahman ◽  
Sudeb Chandra Das ◽  
Mark I. Pownceby ◽  
James Tardio ◽  
Md Sha Alam ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rare Earth ◽  
Rare Earth Element ◽  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Earth Element ◽  
Tectonic Setting ◽  
River Sediments ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Heavy Minerals ◽  
Brahmaputra River

Sediments from stable sand bars along a 40 km section of the Brahmaputra River in northern Bangladesh were analyzed for their major, trace and rare earth element contents to determine their provenance, compositional maturity, source area weathering and tectonic setting. Geochemically, the sediments were classified as litharenites and the Index of Compositional Variability (ICV) varied between 1.4 and 2.0, indicating low compositional and mineralogical maturity. A high mean SiO2 concentration (72.9 wt.%) and low Al2O3 (11.1 wt.%) were consistent with a low abundance of shale and clay components. The depletion of the oxide components Na2O, CaO and K2O relative to average upper crustal compositions (UCC) reflected loss of feldspar during chemical weathering in the source region. Average TiO2 values for most samples were higher than average crustal levels, consistent with the northern section of the Brahmaputra River being a potential resource for valuable Fe-Ti oxide heavy minerals. Major and trace element ratios indicated the sediments represented erosional products from typical felsic upper continental crustal materials with contamination (30%–40%) from more intermediate/mafic compositions. The rare earth element patterns showed negative Eu anomalies (0.57–0.71), indicating they were derived mainly from fractionated felsic rocks. Resemblance of the sediment compositions to mean compositions from Higher Himalaya crystalline rocks pointed to these being potential source rocks but with components from a mafic source also present. Major element chemistries and low to intermediate weathering indices for all sediments indicated a lack of substantial chemical weathering. Evidence from tectonic discrimination diagrams suggested the Brahmaputra River sediments were derived from rock types that formed in a transitional tectonic setting ranging from an ancient passive margin to an active continental margin. Deposition occurred under cool to semi-arid climatic conditions in an oxic environment.

Geochemistry and provenance of metasedimentary rocks from the Archean Golden Pond sequence (Casa Berardi mining district, Abitibi subprovince)

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 676-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Flèche ◽  
G. Camiré
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Source Rocks ◽  
Iron Formation ◽  
Mining District ◽  
Metasedimentary Rocks ◽  
Clastic Rocks ◽  
The North ◽  
Volcanic Source

The Archean Golden Pond sequence is made up of deformed and metamorphosed conglomerates, greywackes, and mafic volcanic rocks, and is overlain by ferrugineous metasedimentary rocks of the North iron formation. The clastic rocks were derived mainly from a volcanic source that had undergone weak chemical weathering. Their source area was dominated by the presence of 60–80% high-Al2O3 felsic volcanics having strongly fractionated [La/Sm]N (= 3.7 ± 0.3) and very low Ta/Th ratios (= 0.09 ± 0.02), with lesser proportions of basaltic (10–30%) and ultramafic volcanic rocks (1–10%). The ferrugineous metasedimentary rocks can be modelled by mixing 20–40% siliciclastic material, of the composition of the average Golden Pond greywacke, with an Fe- and Si-rich precipitate (molecular Fe/Si = 0.6 ± 0.2). The high-Al2O3 felsic source rocks were most likely produced by subduction processes within an oceanic arc environment, but the mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks were derived by different processes from an asthenospheric mantle source, possibly in an oceanic rift environment. Therefore, it is suggested that the ultramafic, mafic, and felsic volcanic rocks were brought to the same erosional level by dissection of the arc system and rapid exhumation of the felsic arc lithologies and the deeper ocean floor. Intrabasinal hydrothermal activity associated with contemporaneous mafic volcanism and (or) graben development may have also been responsible for the local production of the Fe-rich precipitates of the North iron formation.

Syngenetic magnetic anomaly sources: Three examples

Geophysics ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 902-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Parker Gay ◽  
Bronson W. Hawley
Keyword(s):  
Central America ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Rocky Mountain ◽  
Magnetic Anomalies ◽  
Magnetic Minerals ◽  
Subsurface Geology ◽  
South Central ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Source Materials

Aeromagnetic anomalies encountered in three areas, two in the western United States and one in Central America, are shown to arise from magnetic sedimentary formations. These examples are selected from a larger number of similar areas surveyed by Applied Geophysics, Inc. in various places in the U.S. Midcontinent and Rocky Mountain regions. The first area discussed is the northwest corner of Nebraska where the Miocene Arikaree formation, comprised of magnetic airfall and windblown tuffs, causes anomalies in areas of incised topography. The second area is located in south central Utah, where the Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits sandstones contain detrital magnetite that causes large anomalies in tilted structures and over incised topography. The third area treated covers over half of southern Belize in Central America, including much of the offshore portion. Here, the Toledo formation of Paleocene‐Eocene age contains a thick section of clastic detritus rich in lithic grains of volcanic rocks that produce magnetic highs over thrusted and folded anticlinal axes. These three examples of magnetic anomalies due to syngenetic magnetite in widely scattered areas and from different types of source materials bring into question the assumption of so‐called “diagenetic magnetite” (or other magnetic minerals) as a cause of magnetic anomalies in other petroleum basins. It is necessary in all cases to determine the magnetic source from surface or subsurface geology, as was done here, rather than making assumptions strictly from magnetic profiles or mathematical models.

scholarly journals Gems and Placers—A Genetic Relationship Par Excellence

Minerals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 470 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dill Harald G.
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Weathering ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Heavy Minerals ◽  
Mineral Matter ◽  
Processing Plant ◽  
Extrinsic Factors ◽  
Vertical Movements ◽  
Running Water ◽  
Placer Deposits

Gemstones form in metamorphic, magmatic, and sedimentary rocks. In sedimentary units, these minerals were emplaced by organic and inorganic chemical processes and also found in clastic deposits as a result of weathering, erosion, transport, and deposition leading to what is called the formation of placer deposits. Of the approximately 150 gemstones, roughly 40 can be recovered from placer deposits for a profit after having passed through the “natural processing plant” encompassing the aforementioned stages in an aquatic and aeolian regime. It is mainly the group of heavy minerals that plays the major part among the placer-type gemstones (almandine, apatite, (chrome) diopside, (chrome) tourmaline, chrysoberyl, demantoid, diamond, enstatite, hessonite, hiddenite, kornerupine, kunzite, kyanite, peridote, pyrope, rhodolite, spessartine, (chrome) titanite, spinel, ruby, sapphire, padparaja, tanzanite, zoisite, topaz, tsavorite, and zircon). Silica and beryl, both light minerals by definition (minerals with a density less than 2.8–2.9 g/cm3, minerals with a density greater than this are called heavy minerals, also sometimes abbreviated to “heavies”. This technical term has no connotation as to the presence or absence of heavy metals), can also appear in some placers and won for a profit (agate, amethyst, citrine, emerald, quartz, rose quartz, smoky quartz, morganite, and aquamarine, beryl). This is also true for the fossilized tree resin, which has a density similar to the light minerals. Going downhill from the source area to the basin means in effect separating the wheat from the chaff, showcase from the jeweler quality, because only the flawless and strongest contenders among the gemstones survive it all. On the other way round, gem minerals can also be used as pathfinder minerals for primary or secondary gemstone deposits of their own together with a series of other non-gemmy material that is genetically linked to these gemstones in magmatic and metamorphic gem deposits. All placer types known to be relevant for the accumulation of non-gemmy material are also found as trap-site of gemstones (residual, eluvial, colluvial, alluvial, deltaic, aeolian, and marine shelf deposits). Running water and wind can separate minerals according to their physical-chemical features, whereas glaciers can only transport minerals and rocks but do not sort and separate placer-type minerals. Nevertheless till (unconsolidated mineral matter transported by the ice without re-deposition of fluvio-glacial processes) exploration is a technique successfully used to delineate ore bodies of, for example, diamonds. The general parameters that matter during accumulation of gemstones in placers are their intrinsic value controlled by the size and hardness and the extrinsic factors controlling the evolution of the landscape through time such as weathering, erosion, and vertical movements and fertility of the hinterland as to the minerals targeted upon. Morphoclimatic processes take particular effect in the humid tropical and mid humid mid-latitude zones (chemical weathering) and in the periglacial/glacial and the high-altitude/mountain zones, where mechanical weathering and the paleogradients are high. Some tectono-geographic elements such as unconformities, hiatuses, and sequence boundaries (often with incised valley fills and karstic landforms) are also known as planar architectural elements in sequence stratigraphy and applied to marine and correlative continental environments where they play a significant role in forward modeling of gemstone accumulation. The present study on gems and gemstone placers is a reference example of fine-tuning the “Chessboard classification scheme of mineral deposits” [1] and a sedimentary supplement to the digital maps that form the core of the overview “Gemstones and geosciences in space and time” [2].

Valleys, Estuaries, and Lagoons: Paleoenvironments and Regressive–Transgressive Architecture of the Upper Cretaceous Straight Cliffs Formation, Utah, U.S.A

2015 ◽  
Vol 85 (10) ◽  
pp. 1166-1196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenton M. Chentnik ◽  
Cari L. Johnson ◽  
Julia S. Mulhern ◽  
Lisa Stright
Keyword(s):  
Structural Control ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Source Area ◽  
Axial Position ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Incised Valley ◽  
Straight Cliffs Formation ◽  
South Central ◽  
Straight Cliffs ◽  
John Henry Member

Abstract:  The John Henry Member of the Upper Cretaceous Straight Cliffs Formation preserves deposition of four regressive–transgressive (R-T) cycles in 350 m of strata of the Sevier foredeep in south-central Utah, USA. Each cycle is discussed in detail, with emphasis on the transgressive phases of deposition. Regressive intervals comprise wave-dominated shorefaces and coastal-plain strata, whereas transgressive intervals record tide-influenced coastal-margin and low-energy-bay and lagoonal deposits. One R-T cycle in the lower John Henry Member preserves a compound incised-valley system filled with a complex assemblage of tidal and estuarine facies. In contrast, overlying R-T cycles are not associated with valley formation, but instead preserve sandstone-rich back-barrier platform deposits that transition landward into tidal-creek, tidal-flat, and marsh depositional settings. Excellent outcrop expression permits detailed examination of the complex internal architecture of the compound incised-valley, and demonstrates that: 1) tidal ravinement significantly modified the initial valley shape during transgression, a process not fully recognized in most conceptual models of valley formation and fill; 2) the valley system incised in a basin-axial position (NNE–SSW), subparallel to the thrust front and oblique to the orientation of pre-valley-formation shorefaces, which prograded from west to east. Axial systems are well-known transporters of large volumes of sediment in foreland basins, and yet most incised-valley models imply a direct and oversimplified relationship between up-dip (source area and tectonics) and down-dip (base level) controls; 3) the major subaerial unconformity and bypass surface occurred at a higher (younger) stratigraphic position than previously interpreted, and is herein renamed the lower John Henry Member sequence boundary. The changes in regional correlations necessitated by this discovery have several broader implications for sequence stratigraphic models; 4) finally, correlations down dip along the axial valley system indicate a steep topographic gradient of 0.011, with 47% vertical, compacted expansion of the whole John Henry Member over 14 km from south to the north. This suggests structural control on sediment transport and deposition, with significant lateral variability in accommodation parallel to the fold-thrust belt. This study adds to the growing body of literature documenting the complex nature of transgressive deposits, which will aid in the interpretation, prediction, and management of analogous subsurface reservoirs.

The conglomerate of Churn Creek: Late Cretaceous basin evolution along the Insular–Intermontane superterrane boundary, southern British Columbia

2001 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
J W Riesterer ◽  
J Brian Mahoney ◽  
Paul Karl Link
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Volcanic Rocks ◽  
Clastic Rocks ◽  
South Central ◽  
Lower Member ◽  
Volcanic Source ◽  
Braided Stream ◽  
Bridge Group

Upper Cretaceous coarse clastic rocks exposed in the canyon of Churn Creek, south-central British Columbia, record active basin tectonism and coeval volcanism adjacent to the boundary between the Intermontane and Insular superterranes. Mid to late Albian (~104 Ma U–Pb), calc-alkaline andesite and basaltic andesite flows, with minor conglomerate and reworked epiclastic deposits and tuffs correlative with the Spences Bridge Group of the Intermontane superterrane are exposed in the canyon. In depositional contact above the volcanic rocks is the conglomerate of Churn Creek, which contains a thick (>1 km) sequence of complexly intertonguing conglomerate and sandstone that is divided into two members composed of four lithofacies. The lower member was deposited unconformably on the underlying Albian volcanic unit and contains late Albian–Cenomanian chert-pebble (>50% chert) conglomerate and interbedded chert- and volcanic-lithic sandstone. It is interpreted to have been deposited in a braided stream system flowing from southeast to northwest. The source for the chert was most likely the Bridge River terrane, a Mississippian to Jurassic ocean floor assemblage located to the southwest of Churn Creek, south of the Yalakom fault. Gradationally overlying the lower member throughout much of the basin is a mixed chert, plutonic, and volcaniclastic lithofacies of the upper member. Plutonic debris was provided to the mixed and plutonic lithofacies of the upper member by the Little Basin pluton, which was uplifted along the northeast-directed Little Basin thrust fault on the southwest margin of the basin. The upper member also contains a volcanic-rich lithofacies composed of chaotic volcanic conglomerate and local lithic tuff derived from a coeval proximal volcanic source. The conglomerate of Churn Creek records active northeast-vergent compressional tectonism and development of piggyback basins along the boundary between the Insular and Intermontane superterranes during Albian–Santonian time. The conglomerate of Churn Creek has been correlated to the Silverquick – Powell Creek succession of the Methow terrane, based on age, stratigraphic, lithologic, structural, geochemical, and paleomagnetic similarities, and may, therefore, represent an overlap assemblage linking the superterranes in the Late Cretaceous.

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