Thermal History of Lower Paleozoic Rocks on the Peri-Tornquist Margin of the East European Craton (Podolia, Ukraine) Inferred from Combined XRD, K-Ar, and AFT Data

Abstract

AbstractThe Upper Silurian–Lower Devonian section of the Dniester gorge in Podolia and samples from boreholes located S and N of this area were studied in order to reconstruct the thermal history of Lower Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the Dniester segment of the Peri-Tornquist margin of the East European Craton which is the most eastern part of a major shale-gas target in Europe. X-ray diffraction data for illite-smectite from shales and carbonates indicate very advanced diagenesis and maximum paleotemperatures of ~200ºC, higher than interpreted from the ‘conodont alteration index’ (CAI) data. Diagenesis of the Devonian section is slightly less advanced than that of the underlying Silurian section, indicating that it is a regional feature and the result of burial. The regional distribution of the diagenetic grade based on illite matches well with the pattern established from the CAI data. K-Ar dating of illite-smectite from Silurian bentonites and shales gave a consistent set of dates ranging from 390 to 312 Ma. To explain such advanced levels of diagenesis and such K-Ar dates, the extension of the Carboniferous foreland basin (which today is only preserved to the NW of L’viv) toward the SE on the craton margin has to be assumed. The diagenetic zonation pattern of the Carboniferous coals supports this hypothesis. The Carboniferous cover may have been either sedimentary or partially tectonic (Variscan intracratonic duplexes) in origin and the thickness, necessary for the observed level of diagenesis, may have been reduced by an elevated heat flow along the major tectonic zone at the edge of the craton (TESZ). The presence of such cover is confirmed by completely reset Cretaceous apatite fission track (AFT) ages of the Silurian bentonites. The AFT dates also imply a Tertiary heating event in the area.The 10 Å clay mineral present in the dolomitic part of the profile (Silurian), both in bentonites and in other rocks, is aluminoceladonite or intermediate between illite and aluminoceladonite, while in the Devonian shale section only illite was documented. Chlorite is also common in the studied rocks and is at least partially authigenic. It is non-expandable in the samples from boreholes, while often expandable to variable extents in the samples from outcrops, which also contain goethite. Such variation in chlorite is attributed to contemporary weathering.