Occurrence of authigenic beidellite in the Eocene transitional sandy sediments of the Chu-Saryssu basin (South-Central Kazakhstan)

Abstract

This paper describes the petrographic properties and the clay mineralogy of Eocene sandy sediments of the Chu-Saryssu basin (South-Central Kazakhstan), in which dioctahedral smectite formed during shallow burial diagenesis (eogenesis). Evidence from petrography and clay mineralogy supports the successive occurrence of kaolinite and dioctahedral smectite during the eogenetic processes, which may have resulted from a change from wet and humid to semi-arid or arid climatic conditions. An original result of this study is the predominantly beidellitic nature of the authigenic smectite, which was determined via X-ray diffraction (XRD, using the Hofmann–Klemen test) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) investigations and chemical microanalysis. The crystal-chemical investigations indicate a rather homogeneous chemical composition of the smectite at the regional scale, and the following unit formula is proposed: (Si4+3.65Al3+0.35)(Al3+1.65Fe3+0.21Mg2+0.14)O10(OH)2Na+0.10Mg2+0.11Ca2+0.04K+0.07. This type of smectite has been interpreted as representative of mixed layers of montmorillonite and beidellite. The fact that the smectite that formed primarily in the unconsolidated sandy sediments is close to beidellite, rather than montmorillonite, may have a major impact on the rate of further illitization in the Chu-Saryssu basin. Indeed, the crystal chemistry of beidellite is more favorable to illitization, and the presence of this mineral provides new insights concerning the different rates of illitization between sandstones and shale formations observed worldwide.