Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Advertisement

Nature
  • Letter
  • Published:

Diagenetic origin of quartz silt in mudstones and implications for silica cycling

Naturevolume 406, pages981–985 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Mudstone—the most abundant sedimentary rock type1, composed primarily of clay- or silt-sized particles—contains most of the quartz found in sedimentary rocks2. These quartz grains, which are chemically and mechanically resistant and therefore preserve their characteristics well, have long been considered to be derived from the continental crust1. Here we analyse quartz silt from black shales in the eastern USA, dating back to the Late Devonian period (about 370 million years ago), using backscattered electron and cathodoluminescence imaging and measure oxygen isotopes with an ion probe. Our results indicate that up to 100% of the quartz silt in our samples does not originate from the continental crust. Instead, it appears to have precipitated early in diagenesis in algal cysts and other pore spaces3, with silica derived from the dissolution of opaline skeletons of planktonic organisms, such as radiolaria and diatoms. Transformation of early diatoms intoin situ quartz silt might explain the time gap between the earliest fossil occurrences of diatoms about 120 Myr ago4 and molecular evidence for a much earlier appearance between 266 or even 500 Myr ago5,6. Moreover, if many other mudstone successions show similarly high proportions ofin situ precipitated—rather than detrital—quartz silt, the sedimentary record in mudstones may have been misinterpreted in the past, with consequences for our estimates of palaeoproductivity as well as our perceptions of the dynamics and magnitude of global biogeochemical cycling of silica.

This is a preview of subscription content,access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Subscription info for Japanese customers

We have a dedicated website for our Japanese customers. Please go tonatureasia.com to subscribe to this journal.

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to the full article PDF.

￥ 4,980

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Quartz grains in a silt layer from Devonian mudstone succession.
Figure 2: Detrital quartz silt with pore-filling diagenetic quartz.
Figure 3: Several generations of diagenetic quartz growth in algal cysts.
Figure 4: Quartz silt grains in mudstone matrix with several growth generations.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Potter, P. E., Maynard, J. B. & Pryor, W. A.Sedimentology of Shale (Springer, New York, 1980).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  2. Blatt, H. Provenance studies and mudrocks.J. Sedim. Petrol. 55, 69–75 (1985).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Schieber, J. Early diagenetic silica deposition in algal cysts and spores: A source of sand in black shales?J. Sedim. Res.66, 175–183 (1996).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Tappan, H. The Paleobiology of Plant Protists (Freeman, San Francisco, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Kooistra, W. H. C. F. & Medlin, L. K. Evolution of the diatoms (Bacillariophyta): IV. A reconstruction of their age from small subunit rRNA coding regions and the fossil record.Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.6, 391–407 ( 1996).

    Article CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Philippe, H. et al. Comparison of molecular and paleontological data in diatoms suggests a major gap in the fossil record.J. Evol. Biol. 7, 247–265 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Seyedolali, A. et al. Provenance interpretation of quartz by scanning electron microscope-cathodoluminescence fabric analysis.Geology25, 787– 790 (1997).

    Article ADS CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Milliken, K. L. Cathodoluminescent textures and the origin of quartz silt in Oligocene mudrocks, south Texas.J. Sedim. Res. A64, 567– 571 (1994).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Woodrow, D. L. in The Catskill Delta (eds Woodrow, D. L. & Sevon, W. D.) 51– 63 (Special Paper 201, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado, 1985).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  10. Matter, A. & Ramseyer, K. inProvenance of Arenites (ed. Zuffa, G. G.) 191–211 (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1985).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  11. Zinkernagel, U. Cathodoluminescence of quartz and its application to sandstone petrology.Contrib. Sedimentol.8, (1978 ).

  12. Schieber, J. in Shales and MudstonesVol. 1 (eds Schieber, J., Zimmerle, W., & Sethi, P.) 187–215 (Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  13. Ettensohn, F. R. et al. inDevonian of the WorldVol. 2 (eds McMillan, N. J., Embry, A. F. & Glass, D. J.) 323–345 (Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Calgary, 1988).

    Google Scholar 

  14. Riciputi, L. R., Paterson, B. A. & Ripperdan, R. L. Matrix effects in the analysis of light (S, C, O, H) isotope ratios by SIMS.Int. J. Mass Spectrom. Ion Process.178, 81–112 ( 1998).

    Article CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Blatt, H. Oxygen isotopes and the origin of quartz.J. Sedim. Petrol. 57, 373–377 (1987).

    Article CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Blatt, H. & Totten, M. W. Detrital quartz as an indicator of distance from shore in marine mudrocks.J. Sedim. Petrol. 51, 1259–1266 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Schieber, J. Distribution and deposition of mudstone facies in the Upper Devonian Sonyea Group of New York.J. Sedim. Res.69, 909 –925 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Carroll, A. R., Stephens, N. P., Hendrix, M. S. & Glenn, C. R. Eolian-derived siltstone in the Upper Permian Phosphoria Formation: Implications for marine upwelling.Geology26, 1023– 1026 (1998).

    Article ADS  Google Scholar 

  19. Parrish, J. T. Interpreting Pre-Quaternary Climate from the Geologic Record (Columbia University Press, New York, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  20. Wollast, R. & Mackenzie, F. T. inSilicon Geochemistry and Biogeochemistry (ed. Aston, S. R.) 39–76 (Academic, London, 1983).

    Google Scholar 

  21. Füchtbauer, H. Sedimente und Sedimentgesteine (Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1988).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Tyson, R. V. & Pearson, T. H. inModern and Ancient Continental Shelf Anoxia (eds Tyson, R. V. & Pearson, T. H.) 1– 24 (Special Publication 58, Geological Society of London, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  23. Calvert, S. E. & Pedersen, T. F. inOrganic Matter: Productivity, Accumulation and Preservation in Recent and Ancient Sediments (eds Whelan, J. K. & Farrington, J. W.) 231– 263 (Columbia University Press, New York, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

  24. Kepferle, R. C. inPetroleum Geology of the Devonian and Mississippian Black Shale of Eastern North America (eds Roen, J. B. & Kepferle, R. C.), USGS Bull.1909, F1–F23 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Round, F. E., Crawford, R. M. & Mann, D. G.The Diatoms: Biology and Morphology of the Genera (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1990).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Maliva, R. G., Knoll, A. H. & Siever, R. Secular change in chert distribution; a reflection of evolving biological participation in the silica cycle.Palaios4, 519–532 ( 1989).

    Article ADS CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Ettensohn, F. R. inShales and MudstonesVol. 1 (eds Schieber, J., Zimmerle, W. & Sethi, P.) 109–128 (Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 1998).

    Google Scholar 

  28. O'Brien, N. R. & Slatt, R. M.Argillaceous Rock Atlas (Springer, New York, 1990).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  29. Hathon, C., Sibley, D. & Cambray, F. W.The Origin of the Quartz in Antrim Shale (Report FE-2346-61, US Department of Energy, 1980).

    Google Scholar 

  30. Hallam, A. Phanerozoic Sea-Level Changes (Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 1992).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by the Geoscience Research Program, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, US Department of Energy with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp., the National Science Foundation, and the Donors of the Petroleum Research Fund, administered by the American Chemical Society.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington, 76019 , Texas, USA

    Jürgen Schieber & Dave Krinsley

  2. Department of Geological Sciences University of Oregon, Eugene, 97403 , Oregon, USA

    Dave Krinsley

  3. Chemical and Analytical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, PO Box 2008, Oak Ridge, 37831-6365, Tennessee, USA

    Lee Riciputi

Authors
  1. Jürgen Schieber
  2. Dave Krinsley
  3. Lee Riciputi

Corresponding author

Correspondence toJürgen Schieber.

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Schieber, J., Krinsley, D. & Riciputi, L. Diagenetic origin of quartz silt in mudstones and implications for silica cycling.Nature406, 981–985 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35023143

Download citation

This article is cited by

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Associated content

Probing the memory of mud

  • Alan Kemp
NatureNews & Views

Advertisement

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for theNature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox.Sign up for Nature Briefing
[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2026 Movatter.jp