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Dolomite overgrowths suggest a primary origin of cone-in-cone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2016

JOHN N. HOOKER  and
JOE CARTWRIGHT
JOHN N. HOOKER*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK
JOE CARTWRIGHT
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK
*
*Author for correspondence: john.hooker@earth.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

A long-debated aspect of cone-in-cone structures is whether the mineral aggregates composing the structure precipitated with their conical form (primary cone-in-cone), or whether the cones formed after precipitation (secondary cone-in-cone). A calcite deposit from the Cretaceous of Jordan bears all the defining characteristics of the structure. Trace dolomite within the sample supports the primary cone-in-cone hypothesis. The host sediment is a biosiliceous mudstone containing abundant rhombohedral dolomite grains. Dolomite rhombohedra are also distributed throughout the calcite of the cone-in-cone. The rhombohedra within the calcite locally have dolomite overgrowths that are aligned with calcite fibres. Evidence that dolomite co-precipitated with calcite, and did not replace calcite, includes (i) preferential downward extension of dolomite overgrowths, in the presumed growth-direction of the cone-in-cone, from the dolomite grains on which they nucleate, and (ii) planar, vertical borders between dolomite crystals and calcite fibres. Because dolomite overgrows host-sediment rhombohedra and forms part of the cones, it follows that the host-sediment was incorporated into the growing cone-in-cone as the calcite precipitated, and not afterward. The host-sediment was not injected into the cone-in-cone along fractures, as the secondary-origin theory suggests. This finding implies that cone-in-cone in general does not form over multiple stages, and thus has greater potential to preserve the chemical signature of its original precipitation.

Keywords

cone-in-conecalcitedolomitediagenesisSEM
Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 155 , Issue 3 , March 2018 , pp. 568 - 585
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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