Paleoweathering conditions of Upper Carboniferous siliciclastic rocks of SW Hungary

Abstract

The clay mineralogical and chemical compositions of Upper Carboniferous siliciclastic rocks from the western flank of the Villány Mountains (Téseny Sandstone Formation) have been investigated to determine paleoweathering conditions, as well as to appraise the influence of the post-depositional processes upon source rock signature. The clay-mineral assemblage of the samples consists predominantly of illite±muscovite, suggesting a potassium metasomatism in the Téseny clastics. Therefore the use of the Chemical Index of Alteration (CIA), which provides a consistent quantitative framework for examining weathering, leads to erroneous conclusions without correction for K-metasomatism. When considered in Al2O3-CaO* + Na2O-K2O (A-CN-K) compositional space, orthogneiss and igneous rock clasts selected from the Téseny conglomerate reflect two different weathering trends; one (including orthogneiss, quartz diorite, and andesite samples) shows an ideal trend observed for granodioritic rocks, and the other (including aplite, rhyodacite, and rhyolite samples) follows a trend from a slightly more K-feldspar-rich fresh rock composition than that of average granite. Intermediate to intense chemical weathering of the source areas is indicated by premetasomatized CIA values of 77–84 for the samples from borehole Siklósbodony-1, suggesting that these rocks have gained about 6–7% K2O (in A-CN-K space) during metasomatism.