Geology and genesis of the Polish sulfur deposits

Relationships between sulphate reduction and oxidation of organic compounds to carbonate diagenesis, hydrocarbon accumulations, salt domes, and metal sulphide deposits

“…Accordingly, carbonates, solid bitumen, and elemental sulphur resulting from BSR and partial reoxidation of sulphide, have been found only in nearsurface environments (i.e. in salt dome cap rocks of the United States and Europe: Feely and Kulp , 1957;Dessau et al, 1962;Pawlowski et al, 1979), and along/below the oil-water interface in shallow oil reservoirs (i.e. in the USSR: Ashirov, 1962).…”

“…Other examples include water-logged soils, groundwater aquifers, ponds, lakes, marshes, sabkhas, rivers, deltas, fjords, lagoons, and marine sediments down to a water depth of about 10,000 m (Kaplan et. al., 1963;Turner and Patrick, 1968;Thorstenson, 1970;Migdisov et al, 1974;Krouse, 1977;MacKenzie and Wollast, 1977;Champ et al, 1979;Patterson and Kinsman, 1981;Pfennig et al ., 1981;Jeffries et al ., 1984;Hesse, 1986); submarine hydrothermal vents and associated sedimentary base metal deposits (Backer, 1973;Trudinger, 1976); diagenetic to hydrothermal subsurface environments forming base metal sulphide and uranium deposits (Reynolds et al ., 1982;Goldhaber et al ., 1983;Reynolds and Goldhaber, 1983;Fishman and Reynolds, 1986); low-temperature gas seeps and clathrates (Brooks et al, 1984;Davidson et al, 1986); various types of reefal carbonates and layered or diapiric evaporites that have been subjected to diagenetic processes during burial (Feely and K ulp, 1957;Dessau et al ., 1962;Jensen and Dessau, 1967;Davis and Kirkland, 1970;Dunsmore, 1971;Donovan, 1974;Orr, 1974Orr, , 1977Pawlowski et al, 1979;Sassen, 1980;Krebs and Macqueen, 1983;Price and Kyle, 1983;Powell and Macqueen, 1984;Ulrich et al ., 1984); and clastic rocks (Curtis, 1977;Coleman, 1985;…”

Elemental sulfur formation related to celestine reduction: An example of biomineralization of bacterial origin

“…Several studies of elemental sulfur occurrences reveal that these are encountered in (i) organic matter (hydrocarbon)-containing evaporitebasins, and (ii) young volcanic belts of Cenozoic age (Feelyand Kulp 1957;Friedman 1966;Davis and Kirkland 1970;Mukaiyama 1974;Gittinger 1975;Pawlowski et al 1979;Rucknick et al 1979;Youssef 1989;Philip et al 1994;Aref 1998). Gittinger (1975) and Pawlowski et al (1979) described the different factors which control the formation of elemental sulfur beds in sulfate bearing units in evaporitic basins including anaerobic conditions (Eh<O and pH<7),the presenceof organic matter, extensive bacterial activity (sulfate reducing bacteria), and temperatures in general above 50°C.…”

The Middle Miocene of the Fore-Carpathian Basin (Poland, Ukraine and Moldova)

“…There are two opposite views concerning the origin of these sediments (Kwiatkowski 1966), one assuming an entirely post-sedimentary, so-called epigenetic origin via replacement of primary gypsum deposits during burial, and the other suggesting a primary origin at the bottom of the evaporite basin or during very early diagenesis. Most Polish authors accept the epigenetic hypothesis strongly supported by the presence of pseudomorphs after gypsum crystals as well as unchanged gypsum blocks ("gypsum islands") within the ore bodies, coupled with isotopic data (Pawłowski et al 1979;Pawlikowski 1982;Kubica 1994a;Parafiniuk et al 1994;Parafiniuk 2002). However, Gąsiewicz (2000aGąsiewicz ( , b, 2010 and Olchowy (2015) were recently able to support the syngenetic theory proving that most of the sulphur-bearing limestones show sedimentary structures different from those observed in the gypsum deposits, which are difficult to explain by the epigenetic theory.…”