Alteration of magnetic properties of Palaeozoic platform carbonate rocks during burial diagenesis (Lower Ordovician sequence, Texas, USA)

Abstract

Abstract Palaeomagnetic and sedimentological investigations of samples from two sections of correlative Iapetan platform carbonate rocks from Texas, USA, were made to test whether their magnetic properties reflect diagenetic alteration associated with regional and local tectonism. The Honeycut Formation (Llano Uplift area, central Texas), in close proximity to the late Palaeozoic Ouachita orogenic belt, exhibits a distinct correlation between magnetization intensity, magnetization age (direction) and lithofacies. Mudstones preserve their weak primary Early Ordovician magnetization, whereas dolo-grainstones carry a strong Pennsylvanian magnetization residing in authigenic magnetite. Fluid migration associated with the Ouachita Orogeny has been focused in lithofacies with high permeability and caused dolomite recrystallization and pervasive remagnetization. Magnetization intensity trends covary with fluid/rock ratios. However, aquitards were either not affected or less affected by these fluids. Unlike the Honeycut Formation, permeable rocks of the El Paso Group (Franklin Mountains, west Texas) carry only a non-pervasive Pennsylvanian magnetization. Therefore, a larger percentage of El Paso Group samples retain a primary Early Ordovician signature. This area is further removed from the Ouachita front, and, thus, the influence by Pennsylvanian orogenic fluids was less pronounced.