Paying Attention to Mudrocks: Priceless!
Dynamic redox conditions in the Marcellus Shale as recorded by pyrite framboid size distributions
-
Published:September 01, 2015
Pyrite framboid diameters were examined in 31 samples taken from 2 Marcellus Shale cores recovered from Greene County, Pennsylvania, and Upshur County, West Virginia (USA). Analysis of framboid diameters in those samples from the more proximally located Upshur County core suggests that anoxic to anoxic-euxinic conditions persisted during accumulation of the transgressive-regressive cycle (MSS1) that comprises the Union Springs Member of the Marcellus Shale, with intermittent episodes of dysoxia. An increased abundance of large framboids documented from the overlying transgressive-regressive cycle (MSS2), which comprises the bulk of the Oatka Creek Member of the Marcellus Shale, indicates improved bottom-water conditions. Redox conditions recorded by framboid diameters of the MSS1 cycle of the Greene County core are generally similar to those of the Upshur County core; however, conditions in that region of the basin from which the Greene County core was recovered appear to have remained dominantly anoxic to anoxic-euxinic. Furthermore, the presence of small syngenetic framboids and large diagenetic framboids in the same thin section samples suggests that redox conditions fluctuated on a temporal scale beyond that observed at the scale of a centimeter-scale thin section. Framboid diameter trends established for both cores enhance our understanding of how much redox conditions varied both spatially and stratigraphically during accumulation of the Marcellus Shale.
- anaerobic environment
- clastic rocks
- depositional environment
- Devonian
- distribution
- Eh
- framboidal texture
- geochemical indicators
- geochemistry
- Greene County Pennsylvania
- Marcellus Shale
- marine environment
- Middle Devonian
- paleoenvironment
- Paleozoic
- Pennsylvania
- pyrite
- sedimentary rocks
- shale
- sulfides
- textures
- United States
- Upshur County West Virginia
- West Virginia
- Oatka Member