Clay minerals as indicators of diagenetic and anchimetamorphic grade in an overthrust belt, External Domain of southern Canadian Appalachians

Abstract

AbstractLower Palaeozoic shales and slates in the External Domain of the southern Canadian Appalachians are composed predominantly of illite and chlorite with minor occurrences of I-S mixed-layer minerals (restricted to samples with illite crystallinity, IC > 0·62°Δ2Θ) and paragonite (restricted to samples with IC < 0·42°Δ2Θ). Inverted diagenesis has occurred in the NW part of the Chaudière Nappe, indicating pre-orogenic deep burial diagenesis at the original depositional site, whereas to the SE, the diagenetic pattern was affected by synorogenic heating. Within the east-dipping thrust-fold belt and the St Lawrence Lowlands, increasing grade towards the S suggests a gradual southward increase in post-tectonic burial depth. Narrow (3–5 km) thermal haloes around the Cretaceous Monteregian intrusions show limited effects on the country rocks.The percentage of 2M1 mica polytypes and bo increase with decreasing IC. Chlorite crystallinity (CC) increases with increasing IC. Good correlations between IC, %2M1, CC and bo of micas indicate that these parameters are reliable monitors of high-grade diagenesis and low-grade metamorphism in clay-rich sedimentary rocks. IC and CC improve with increasing grain size, illustrating the effect of grain size on IC and CC. Organic material affects IC more strongly in strata with lower permeability than in those with higher permeability. In the diagenetic zone, glycolation does not uniformly produce a narrowing of the 10 Å illite peak, but may also broaden it by up to 15%, probably due to the presence of Kalkberg-type mixed-layers.