Clay mineral reaction progress; the maturity and burial history of the Lias Group of England and Wales
Clay mineral reaction progress; the maturity and burial history of the Lias Group of England and Wales
Clay Minerals (March 2005) 40 (1): 43-61
- basins
- burial diagenesis
- Cheshire England
- clastic rocks
- clay minerals
- coal
- diagenesis
- England
- Europe
- Gloucestershire England
- Great Britain
- illite
- Jurassic
- Lower Jurassic
- lower Liassic
- Mesozoic
- Midlands
- mudstone
- quarries
- sedimentary basins
- sedimentary rocks
- SEM data
- sheet silicates
- silicates
- smectite
- surface properties
- TEM data
- thermal maturity
- United Kingdom
- vitrinite reflectance
- Wales
- Wessex Basin
- Western Europe
- Worcestershire England
- X-ray diffraction data
- Cleveland Basin
The clay mineral assemblages and microtextures of a suite of mudrocks from the Lias Group of England and Wales indicate important regional differences in burial history. Samples from the northern Cleveland Basin are characterized by illite-smectite (I-S, 90% illite) and little carbonate whilst samples from the southern Worcester and Wessex basins contain less mature discrete smectite and are often calcite- and dolomite-rich. Lias Group rocks have been buried to 4 km in the Cleveland Basin but to <2 km in the Worcester and Wessex basins. Burial in the Cleveland Basin is deeper than previously estimated and does not need a local heating event. Illite-smectite (80% illite) detected in samples from the East Midlands Shelf suggests burial to 3 km, again deeper than previous estimates for this region.
