From tabular to rhombohedral dolomite crystals in Zechstein 2 dolostones from Scharzfeld (SW Harz/Germany): A case study with combined CL and EBSD investigations

Abstract

Tabular dolomite crystals found within dolomite rhombs have been investigated by cathodoluminescence (CL) microscopy and spectroscopy combined with electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) for the first time. The dolomites formed in the Upper Permian Stassfurt Carbonate Ca2 at the southern margin of the German/Polish Zechstein Basin. Cathodoluminescence petrography of the dolostone succession revealed that the dolomites developed in four phases. Electron backscatter diffraction analysis reveals tabular crystal growth during the two first generations, while the last two generations are characterized by rhombohedral crystal shapes. The tabular dolomite cement crystals and their microcrystalline equivalents in matrix and components have a stoichiometric composition with good to very good lattice ordering. Manganese and iron contents of the tabular crystals are low and their carbon and oxygen isotope composition confirms an early diagenetic dolomite formation under marine-evaporitic conditions from precursor carbonates of Upper Permian age. CL spectroscopy reveals that the tabular dolomite generation 1 has a very high percentage of Mn 2+ on the Ca lattice position which results in a visually yellowish-green CL emission. Although relatively increased Mn 2+ contents at the Ca lattice position appear to be rather common in evaporitic dolomites the combination of a tabular crystal shape and a preferred input of Mn 2+ at the Ca lattice position is a remarkable phenomenon. As tabular dolomite crystals so far are exclusively reported from evaporitic diagenetic settings they could be the result of a high Mg/Ca ratio which blocks c-axis orientated growth of dolomite crystal. The occurrence of well ordered dolomite of which the geochemical zoning can be studied in such detail is rare for the earliest, synsedimentary stages of dolomite formation in marine environments, because these early stages commonly consist of not or badly ordered Ca-dolomites. A primary geochemical zoning of such dolomite usually gets lost during stabilisation and transformation to better ordering and stoichiometry.