Siliciclastic grain breakage and displacement due to carbonate crystal growth: an example from the Lueders Formation (Permian) of north‐central Texas, U.S.A.

Abstract

The Lueders Formation (mid‐Permian) in Baylor County, Texas, is an intercalated suite of fluvial siliciclastic, shallow marine siliciclastic, and shallow marine carbonate strata. There are at least two generations of carbonate cements (probably originally composed of calcite) in the fluvial sandstones where fractured grains are observed. These cements represent the initial stages of caliche formation. Cementation is envisioned as a two step process. In the first step, calcite cements form from supersaturated fluids in a freshwater, vadose environment as a meniscus cement at grain contacts. Areas of cement formation are restricted to these sites because fluid distribution is restricted to these sites. Stresses generated by the growth of cements at grain contacts are transmitted through and concentrated at quartz/quartz grain point‐contacts until the stress is sufficient to fracture quartz grains, even though the ultimate strength of calcite is less than that of quartz, per unit area. This process occurs too rapidly to be accommodated by pressure solution. In the second phase of cementation, cement nucleation is no longer restricted by vadose conditions. In this phase, calcite growth can no longer result in quartz grain breakage; rather, the quartz grains are dispersed in poikilotopic calcite cement.

Taphonomy of the south Brazilian Triassic herpetofauna: fossilization mode and implications for morphological studies

“…Crystallization of calcite in the bones occurred probably as described by Buczynski & Chafetz (1987) and others (see above). As disruption is only possible in zones of low overburden, we believe that the depth of burial of the bone material was not more than a few decimeters or meters.…”

“…This process of diagenetic disruption and dislocation of pre-existing structures at shallow depths resembles that described by Watts (1978), Buczynski & Chafetz (1987) and Braithwaite (1989) regarding calcite crystallization in ancient and recent calcareous crusts (caliches). They LETHAIA 3 1 ( 1998)…”

Composition and properties of the iron hydroxides-cemented lenses in Estonian sandstone of Middle Devonian age

“…4 and 5). Similar features have been described for carbonate cementation (Buczynski and Chafetz, 1987). Chan et al (2000Chan et al ( , 2001 and Beitler et al (2004Beitler et al ( , 2005 explained the formation of hematite and goethite concretions in the Jurassic sandstones of Utah by a multi-stage process.…”

“…4−5) is observed in sandstones with early diagenetic ferrous (Mücke, 1994) and carbonate cement (Braithwaite, 1989) in nearsurface environments that include the vadose and phreatic zones in arid conditions with high evaporation rates (Buczynski and Chafetz, 1987;Metcalfe at al., 1994). Such conditions existed in the studied region during the deposition of Givetian sediments (Ziegler, 1988).…”

The West Water Formation (Hualapai Plateau, Arizona, USA) as a calcrete-paleosol sequence, and its implications for the Paleogene-Neogene evolution of the southwestern Colorado Plateau

“…Pedogenic calcrete emplacement may also explain the apparent decrease in the relative proportion of detrital grains present towards the very top of the massive calcareous unit, as expansion and grain displacement is widely documented in association with near-surface carbonate crystal growth (e.g. Buczynski and Chafetz, 2006). XRD and ICP-MS data suggest that, sometime after formation, the pedogenic calcrete and upper-tomiddle parts of the valley calcrete were dolomitized through the reaction of Mg-rich solutions with precursor calcite (cf.…”