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Age, origin and climatic signal of English Mesozoic clays based on K/Ar signatures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

C. V. Jeans ,
J. G. Mitchell ,
M. J. Fisher ,
D. S. Wray  and
I. R. Hall
C. V. Jeans*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing StreetCambridge CB2 3EQ
J. G. Mitchell
Affiliation:
29 Greystoke Park, GosforthNewcastle upon Tyne NE3 2DZ
M. J. Fisher
Affiliation:
Nevis Associates Ltd., Helensburgh, Argyll and Bute, G84 8DD
D. S. Wray
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Greenwich, PembrokeChatham Maritime, Kent ME4 4AW, UK
I. R. Hall
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing StreetCambridge CB2 3EQ
*
*E-mail: SJL11@esc.cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

The K/Ar characteristics of 53 clay assemblages (Triassic–Cretaceous), representing the detrital, volcanogenic and arid-facies clay mineral associations, are interpreted in relation to their mineralogy, chronostratic age and geological origins. The K-bearing mineral components of the 1–2 μm, 0.2–1 μm and <0.2 μm fractions of each clay assemblage together display one of two characteristic patterns of K2O and 40Ar values (the K/Ar signature of the assemblage) on a 40Ar/K2O correlation diagram. Interpretation of the K/Ar signatures indicates that: (1) all of these clay assemblages are apparently unaffected by burial diagenetic illitization; (2) the Jurassic and Cretaceous detrital clay assemblages are derived from the reworking of weathered Caledonian metasediments (420 500 Ma) and weathered kaolin-bearing sediments of Upper Devonian/ Carboniferous age; and (3) the role played by palaeoclimate in developing the pattern of clay minerals in the Mesozoic sediments of England is much less significant than previously believed.

Keywords

K/Ar signatureclimatic signalclaysEnglandTriassicJurassicCretaceous
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , December 2001 , pp. 515 - 539
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2001

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