Relationship of mineralogy to depositional environments in the non-marine Tertiary mudstones of the southwestern Ebro Basin (Spain)

Inglés, M.; Salvany, Josep Maria; Muñoz, Arsenio; Pérez, Antonio

doi:10.1016/s0037-0738(97)00112-7

Cited by 16 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Particular notice has been given to clay minerals and zeolites, as these minerals represent important keys to deducing changes in source area, palaeoclimate, and sedimentary environments (see, for example, Mayayo et al, 1996;Inglès et al, 1998;English, 2001;Sáez et al, 2003). While many studies have examined the mineralogy of lacustrine sediments, less commonly have such studies considered the composition of both alluvial and lacustrine sediments, and the lateral changes occurring between the two environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clay mineral assemblages and analcime formation in a Palaeogene fluvial–lacustrine sequence (Maíz Gordo Formation Palaeogen) from northwestern Argentina

Campo

Papa

Jiménez-Millán

et al. 2007

Sedimentary Geology

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The Palaeogene Maíz Gordo Formation is one of the main lacustrine events recorded in northwestern Argentina. It consists of sandstone, mudstone, and limestone beds 200 m thick, deposited in a brackish-alkaline lake and braided alluvial systems. The Maíz Gordo Lake evolved mainly as a closed system, with brief periods as an open one. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to study samples from seven sites, corresponding respectively to proximal, intermediate, and transitional positions of the fluvial environment and marginal and inner-lake environment, focusing on the clay mineralogy and analcime formation. The basinward zonation of diagenetic minerals identified in the Maíz Gordo Lake was: mordenite → analcime → K-feldspar. Although not a typical zonation of saline-alkaline lakes, it does indicate an increase in salinity and alkalinity towards the centre.In proximal fluvial settings, smectite predominates at the base of the sequence, with scarce kaolinite. Towards the top, a striking increase in kaolinite content suggests a change from a relatively arid climate with alternating humid and dry seasons, towards a warm and humid climate. Kaolinite content clearly decreases in a basinward direction. Such a variation is attributable to changes in hydro-geochemistry, denoting the progressive influence of the brackish and alkaline lake water on interstitial pores. SEM images of intermediate fluvial samples reveal authigenesis of illite at the expense of kaolinite booklets.In littoral and inner-lake settings the clay fraction is composed of muscovite, sometimes with subordinate smectite. Analcime occurs in variable amounts in all sedimentary facies, in rock pores or filling veins. It forms subhedral square to hexagonal, or anhedral rounded crystals, denoting that they coarsened at low to moderate degrees of supersaturation. Although the mordenite identified in a fluvial level would have been the precursor of analcime in the Maíz Gordo Basin, no textural evidence of analcime formation through replacement of mordenite or other precursor zeolite was found. Hence it is more probable that analcime formation took place by direct authigenic precipitation or through the reaction between interstitial brines and clay minerals or plagioclase.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clay mineral assemblages and analcime formation in a Palaeogene fluvial–lacustrine sequence (Maíz Gordo Formation Palaeogen) from northwestern Argentina

Campo

Papa

Jiménez-Millán

et al. 2007

Sedimentary Geology

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“…The outcropping sediments of the Lerín Formation are composed of about 20 m of reddish and brown mudstones that include common grey, thin (cm to dm) sheet-like sandstone intercalations, and are overlain by about 20 m of ochre and yellow mudstones with laminated and nodular gypsum beds that form two main levels (Larrasoaña et al, 2006). The Lerín Formation can be included into the tectosedimentary unit (TSU) 4 of Alonso-Zarza et al (2002), and represents the deposition in a distal alluvial-saline lacustrine system developed at the central part of the basin during the late Oligocene and early Miocene (Muñoz-Jiménez and CasasSainz, 1997;Ingles et al, 1998). Up to this study, no fossil remains had been reported from the Lerín Formation.…”

Section: Geological Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

First bird footprints from the lower Miocene Lerín Formation, Ebro Basin, Spain

Díaz‐Martínez

Suarez-Hernando

Martínez-García

et al. 2016

Palaeontologia Electronica

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A new tracksite with bird footprints, found in the Bardenas Reales de Navarra Natural Park (Navarre, Spain), is presented in this study. The footprints are preserved in four sandstone blocks of the Lerín Formation from the northwest sector of the Ebro Basin. According to the magnetostratigraphic data, the age of these blocks is 20.4 Ma (Agenian, lower Miocene). The footprints are more than 100 mm in length, mesaxonic, and tridactyl, and have a prominent central pad impression with the digit impressions not jointed proximally. These features allow classifying them as Uvaichnites riojana. Some of the studied footprints are better preserved than the type series of Uvaichnites, which were found also in the northwest sector of the Ebro Basin. Therefore, the original diagnosis has been emended. Available chronostratigraphic data for these localities as well as for other footprints from China indicate a latest Oligocene-earliest Miocene age (from about 23 to 20 Ma) for Uvaichnites-like footprints. Sedimentological data also indicate similar continental environments, namely perilacustrine deltaic systems and distal alluvial systems. The information about early Miocene avian remains (bones, eggs and footprints) in the Iberian Peninsula is scarce. The skeletal and oological record of this age has been included within the families Phoenicopteridae, Phaisanidae and Cathartidae (or incertae sedis), while the ichnological record was related with trackmakers belonging to Charadriiformes, Ardeidae and Gruidae taxa. For this scenario, in which there are few avian remains, the ichnological diversity shown in this paper complements and improves the knowledge about the Iberian avian diversity in the early Miocene.

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“…From this parent water, progressive precipitation of carbonate, sulphate and chloride minerals occurred by evaporative concentration. Carbonate accumulation in the form of calcite took place in the ponds of the peripheral mudflats (Inglès et al. , 1998).…”

Section: Halite Geochemistry and Origin Of The Brinesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glauberite–halite association of the Zaragoza Gypsum Formation (Lower Miocene, Ebro Basin, NE Spain)

Salvany¹,

Garcı́a-Veigas

Ortı́

2006

Sedimentology

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Glauberite is the most common mineral in the ancient sodium sulphate deposits in the Mediterranean region, although its origin, primary or diagenetic, continues to be a matter of debate. A number of glauberite deposits of Oligocene-Miocene age in Spain display facies characteristics of sedimentologic significance, in particular those in which a glauberite-halite association is predominant. In this context, a log study of four boreholes in the Zaragoza Gypsum Formation (Lower Miocene, Ebro Basin, NE Spain) was carried out. Two glauberite-halite lithofacies associations, A and B, are distinguished: association (A) is composed of bedded cloudy halite and minor amounts of massive and clastic glauberite; association (B) is made up of laminated to thin-bedded, clear macrocrystalline, massive, clastic and contorted lithofacies of glauberite, and small amounts of bedded cloudy halite. Transparent glauberite cemented by clear halite as well as normal-graded and reverse-graded glauberite textures are common. This type of transparent glauberite is interpreted as a primary, subaqueous precipitate. Gypsum, thenardite or mirabilite are absent in the two associations. The depositional environment is interpreted as a shallow perennial saline lake system, in which chloride brines (association A) and sulphate-(chloride) brines (association B) are developed. The geochemical study of halite crystals (bromine contents and fluid inclusion compositions) demonstrates that conditions for co-precipitation of halite and glauberite, or for precipitation of Na-sulphates (mirabilite, thenardite) were never fulfilled in the saline lake system. Primary gypsum (G) refers to the deduced original mineral association. The presence at present of secondary gypsum in all the formations is omitted. 444 J. M. Salvany et al.

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Relationship of mineralogy to depositional environments in the non-marine Tertiary mudstones of the southwestern Ebro Basin (Spain)

Cited by 16 publications

References 15 publications

Clay mineral assemblages and analcime formation in a Palaeogene fluvial–lacustrine sequence (Maíz Gordo Formation Palaeogen) from northwestern Argentina

Clay mineral assemblages and analcime formation in a Palaeogene fluvial–lacustrine sequence (Maíz Gordo Formation Palaeogen) from northwestern Argentina

First bird footprints from the lower Miocene Lerín Formation, Ebro Basin, Spain

Glauberite–halite association of the Zaragoza Gypsum Formation (Lower Miocene, Ebro Basin, NE Spain)

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