Review of cenozoic ooidal ironstones

Abstract

Cenozoic (Tertiary) ooidal ironstones (COI) in 20 districts (39 deposits) developed between the equatorial zone and 60° N, except for one Eocene district in mid-southern latitude. Stratigraphic distribution. Paleocene OI occur in northern Pakistan, western Siberia, southern Germany, northwestern Venezuela, and northeastern Colombia: Eocene OI in western Siberia, southern Germany, northwestern Romania, central North Africa, central-west Saudi Arabia, southwestern Central Africa, northwestern Venezuela, northeastern Colombia, south-central USA, and northwestern Australia; Oligocene OI in northwest and west-central Kazakhstan, central Denmark, and north-central Iran?; Miocene OI in northwestern Venezuela, northeastern Colombia, and southeastern Malaysia; Pliocene OI in southeastern Ukraine. Geotectonic framework. Ten districts developed in an interior or fractured craton: five along the south-trending Uralian Seaway, and one along the east-trending Northern European Seaway, the south-trending Trans-Saharan Seaway, in or near an early Red Sea embayment, in southeastern Malaysia, and in northwestern Australia. Ten districts lay near a eratonic margin: one along divergent margin and nine along the broad east-trending Caribbean and Tethyan seaways. Almost all COI accumulated during the Paleogene relatively high stand of sea level, especially in Early and Middle Eocene time. As sea level fell gradually in Neogene time COI developed in only three marginal districts (including the giant Pliocene Kerch-Taman deposit in southeastern Ukraine). Sedimentary environment. Almost all of the COI developed in deltaic to shallow marine facies. These are commonly associated with shoaling-upward siliciclastic sequences; a few are in mixed siliciclastic-carbonate sequences. A few COI apparently occurred in fluvial and lacustrine facies; some of these may have been reworked from laterite or from marine ironstones. Sedimentary petrology. Many COI are less than a few tens of centimeters thick and sporadic. The ooids are entirely or predominantly ferric oxide. A few contain a minor amount of berthierine (7A); only the oldest one (northern Pakistan) contains chamosite (14A). More than half of the COI are associated directly or more remotely with glauconite. Nearly all the COI need much more rigorous examination for both their individual composition and their comparison with older ooidal ironstones.