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Clay mineral authigenesis along a mid-continental scale fluid conduit in Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks from southern Ontario, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

K. Ziegler  and
F. J. Longstaffe
K. Ziegler*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5BZ
F. J. Longstaffe
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Science, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5BZ
*
*E-mail: kziegler@ucsb.edu
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Abstract

Rocks above and below the Precambrian-Palaeozoic unconformity at the base of many Palaeozoic sedimentary basins of mid-continental North America are distinguished by secondary K-feldspar, chlorite and illite. Thrusting of the Appalachian foreland is generally considered responsible for the fluid migrations which caused this alteration. We have examined secondary chlorite and illite from Cambro-Ordovician rocks which overlie the unconformity in southern Ontario, Canada. This area is situated along the interface between the Michigan and Appalachian basins. Water involved in chloritic alteration at ~150°C has an O isotope composition compatible with a basinal brine evolved from seawater. Brine migration was probably triggered by the Taconic Orogeny to the east. In comparison, the secondary illite (365–321 Ma) largely postdates the Acadian Orogeny, and the illite-forming fluids have stable isotopic compositions typical of tepid (~40–55°C) meteoric water. We suggest that basement arches beneath southern Ontario were reactivated by this orogeny, which facilitated introduction of meteoric water. Similar alteration in underlying Precambrian rocks shows that fluid flow was focused along the unconformity during the regional Ordovician brine migration, as well as during the localized Mississippian introduction of fresh water.

Keywords

O isotopesH isotopesillitechloritebrinesmeteoric waterPalaeozoicOntario
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 239 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2000

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Footnotes

†

Present address: Department of Geography, 3611 Ellison Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA93106, USA

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