Spatial distribution of carbon and oxygen isotopes in laterally extensive carbonate-cemented layers: Implications for mode of growth and subsurface identification
Js. Klein et al., Spatial distribution of carbon and oxygen isotopes in laterally extensive carbonate-cemented layers: Implications for mode of growth and subsurface identification, J SED RES, 69(1), 1999, pp. 184-201
Carbonate concretions and laterally extensive cemented layers are common fe
atures in the Prairie Canyon Member of the Mancos Shale at its type localit
y in western Colorado. Stable-isotope and petrographic data were obtained f
rom these cemented zones in an attempt to determine: (1) how the cemented l
ayers form, (2) whether or not they can be chemically correlated, and (3) i
f it is possible to differentiate them from concretions in the subsurface.
The cement in both the layers and concretions consists of ferroan dolomite
and lesser amounts of stoichiometric dolomite and ankerite. Samples for sta
ble-isotope analysis were drilled from 10 grids, with a typical grid spacin
g of 10 cm x 10 cm, Gridded samples were obtained from two continuous cemen
ted layers at several locations along the layers (2.3 m to 1.5 km apart on
the same layer), and from isolated and stratabound concretions,
Taken together, all the cements (regardless of spatial position) show a rem
arkably linear correlation (R-2 = 0.98) between delta(13)C and delta(18)O,
Systematic center-to-edge decreases in both delta(13)C and delta(18)O occur
in each of the cemented zones and are persistent over lateral intervals of
at least 1.5 km, The cores of the cemented zones have positive delta(13)C
values (up to > 10 parts per thousand PDB), which result from incorporation
of C-13-enriched carbon during methanogenesis. The edges of the cemented z
ones have negative delta(13)C values (down to < -9 parts per thousand PDB),
which suggests incorporation of C-13-depleted carbon from thermocatalytic
decarboxylation reactions. Oxygen isotope paleothermometry indicates that p
recipitation may have started at moderate temperatures (similar to 25 degre
es C) and ended at temperatures as high as 92 degrees C,
The spatial distribution of the isotopic data in the cemented layers can be
explained as resulting from the coalescence of stratabound concretions, fo
llowed by growth above and below the coalesced concretions. Such growth may
have occurred in a complex: manner, in which early cements precipitated th
roughout the thickness of the layer but were more abundant in the core zone
. Given the lateral persistence of the pattern of isotopic variation in the
cemented layers, geochemical correlation of the layers may be possible in
the subsurface. In addition, because laterally persistent cemented layers i
n the Prairie Canyon Member exhibit patterns of isotopic variation differen
t from concretions (layers have a more asymmetrical vertical distribution),
it should be possible to distinguish between the two styles of cementation
from subsurface core data alone.