Analysis and significance of mineral matter in coal seams

Source to sink: A review of three decades of progress in the understanding of volcaniclastic processes, deposits, and hazards

Altered volcanic ashes in coal and coal-bearing sequences: A review of their nature and significance

The origin of tonsteins, an overview, and links with seatearths, fireclays and fragmental clay rocks

The Pennine Basin of northern England contains a comparatively complete Serpukhovian– Moscovian succession characterized by high-resolution ammonoid zonation and cyclic paralic sedimentation. Two new isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry zircon ages from a bentonite deposited during the Arnsbergian (mid-Serpukhovian) regional substage and tonstein of earliest Bolsovian (early Moscovian) regional substage have been determined. The weighted mean 206 Pb/ 238 U ages of 328.34 ± 0.55 and 314.37 ± 0.53 Ma (total uncertainty), respectively, require modification of the time scale for the Western Europe regional chronostratigraphy. The areal extent of acme ammonoid facies is used as a proxy for the magnitude of 47 discrete flooding events. Incised valleys (major sequence boundaries) are used as a proxy for the magnitude of sea-level falls. The frequency of these events, in the light of the new radiometric dating, indicates the following: (1) there is temporal coincidence between major glaciations in Gondwana and phases of increased frequency of sequence boundaries in the Pennine Basin; (2) high-amplitude flooding surfaces have an average frequency of c . 400 ka; (3) average cycle durations during the Pendleian–early Arnsbergian and Chokierian–Bolsovian, of c . 111 and c . 150 ka, respectively, reflect short-duration eccentricities; (4) multiple flooding surfaces with the same ammonoid assemblages may equate with sub-100 ka precession or obliquity frequencies. Supplementary material: U–Pb method description and data, procedure for the calculation of the areal extent of marine bands, and tables showing a full listing of biostratigraphical data used in the study are available at www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18505.

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Nature and timing of Late Mississippian to Mid-Pennsylvanian glacio-eustatic sea-level changes of the Pennine Basin, UK

Nine Namurian clay bands retrieved from boreholes in the northern part of the Pennine Basin are, on the basis of their petrography, mineralogy and geochemistry, shown to be volcanic in origin and are therefore bentonites. The bentonites, which have a fragmental texture, are normally graded and show rare preservation of shard textures, representing vitric tuff deposits that have been altered subsequently to clay-dominated horizons. Crystals are a minor component of the bentonites, but biotite, in particular, is concentrated at the base of the beds. A clay mineral assemblage of mixed-layer illite–smectite with subordinate kaolinite identifies most of the samples as K-bentonites, but kaolinite dominates two samples that can be classed as tonsteins. Temporal variation of salinity within the depositional basin is suggested to explain these different clay assemblages. The major element geochemistry of the bentonites reflects their clay mineralogy and the compositions of diagenetic minerals present, the latter including pyrite, carbonates and hydroxyapatite. Enrichment of the bentonites in some trace elements (including Ba, Sr, Pb, Cu and Ni) can be related to the presence of the diagenetic minerals, but the extent to which the elements are added from external sources as opposed to being redistributed within the ash is unclear. Immobile trace element systematics suggest a rhyodacite/dacite composition for the original ash and derivation from the collision of plates, this being supported by evidence provided by the rare earth elements (REE) in one group of samples. However, in another group of samples, variations in REE concentrations may be caused by mobility of these elements during alteration. The chemistry of the Namurian bentonites contrasts markedly with that of the local Carboniferous volcanics but is comparable, in some respects, with one group of Westphalian tonsteins, although the latter are more rhyolitic in character. It is suggested that the Namurian bentonites and the Westphalian tonsteins of acid affinities originated from volcanic activity associated with a destructive plate margin in the Variscan externides and that the observed compositional trend may reflect magma evolution possibly related to the progressive east–west closure.

Riley

Papers

Namurian bentonites in the Pennine Basin, UK – origin and magmatic affinities