STRUCTURES IN JURASSIC ROCKS OF THE WESSEX BASIN, SOUTHERN ENGLAND - II: DIAPIRISM IN EVAPORITE LAYERS

Abstract

The Jurassic Purbeck Beds of the Fossil Forest cliff, Lulworth Cove (southern England) encloses a ~ 10 m-thick wedge in which four juxtaposed levels (L2-L5) of differential strain have been characterized, between two levels of non deformed rocks (LI and L6). Within the zone of strain, level L2 comprises basal calcareous marls displaying 1 cm-thick zones of bed-parallel foliation developed in an anastomosed pathway to form pillow-like features, and upper layers of evaporite where tens of mushrooms or diapirs are observed. They commonly display a ~ 1 m-sized circular geometry on bed-parallel sections, a ~ 0.5 m high central zone forming a generally bed-perpendicular tail, and are surrounded by rim synclines where the evaporite layers are entrapped together with chert and shale; level 3 consists of evaporite and shales displaying cmto dm-scale extension and contraction structures; level L4 comprises remnants of evaporite layers embedded in a shale matrix - a tectonic melange; and level L5 comprises blocks of evaporite and limestone involved in a shale / argillite matrix, a limestone breccia (the so-called Broken Beds) inside which some layers are still preserved and exhibit 1-10 m-scale contraction and extension structures. Level L5 results from the westwards displacement of a wedge above an extensional detachment (the interface L3 / L4) and below another detachment established on a layer of shale at the contact with level L6. The mushrooms clearly deform the L3 / L4 detachment and are interpreted as thermal convection structures formed by a progressive down-sucking of the layers back in the direction of an imaginary point at the center of the diapirs – a centripetal suction leading to contraction and coeval extension, soon after initial displacement of the wedge. The pillow-like features result from percolation of fluids across the marls simultaneously with the evolution of the mushrooms.