ePrints

Open-system chemical behavior in deep Wilcox Group mudstones, Texas Gulf Coast, USA

Lookup NU author(s): Ruarri Day-Stirrat, Professor Andrew Aplin

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

Wilcox Group mudstones have been mechanically and geochemically transformed over a temperature range of 20-200 degrees C. Our research controlled for provenance and age by sampling from five wells, parallel to the paleodepositional axis, all within the Houston delta system. Across the sampled depths, mudstone porosity has been reduced from similar to 25 to <10% and bulk mineralogical change as documented by quantitative X-ray diffraction includes decreases in quartz. K-feldspar and kaolinite content whereas illite + illite - smectite, chlorite, and plagioclase increase. These mineral transformations transfer elements at a scale of less than 1 mm from one mineralogical form to another, however, X-ray fluorescence data suggest that among major elements only Al2O3 and TiO2 are fully conserved within the system (trace-element ZrO2 is also conserved). K2O has been added to and SiO2 released from the Wilcox Group mudstones. Cathodoluminescence and secondary electron imaging did not find this SiO2 locally precipitated. We, therefore, document an open-system geochemical behavior. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Day-Stirrat RJ, Milliken KL, Dutton SP, Loucks RG, Hillier S, Aplin AC, Schleicher AM

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Marine and Petroleum Geology

Year: 2010

Volume: 27

Issue: 9

Pages: 1804-1818

Print publication date: 27/08/2010

ISSN (print): 0264-8172

ISSN (electronic): 1873-4073

Publisher: Elsevier

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2010.08.006

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2010.08.006

Altmetrics

Share