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Chemostratigraphy and provenance of clays and other non-carbonate minerals in chalks of Campanian age (Upper Cretaceous) from Sussex, southern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

D. S. Wray  and
C. V. Jeans
D. S. Wray*
Affiliation:
School of Science, The University of Greenwich, Pembroke, Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK
C. V. Jeans
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK
*
*E-mail: d.wray@greenwich.ac.uk
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Abstract

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Geochemical analysis of acid-insoluble residues derived from white chalks and marl seams of Campanian age from Sussex, UK, has been undertaken. All display a broadly similar <2 μm mineralogical composition consisting of smectite or smectite-rich illite-smectite with subordinate illite and minor amounts of talc. Plots of K2O/Al2O3 and TiO2/Al2O3 indicate that most marl seams have an acid-insoluble residue composition which is slightly different to that of the over- and underlying white chalk, implying that marl seams are primary sedimentary features not formed through white chalk dissolution. On the basis of a negative Eu anomaly and trace element geochemistry one marl seam, the Old Nore Marl, is considered to be volcanically derived and best classified as a bentonite; it is considered to correlate with the bentonite M1 of the north German succession.

Keywords

CretaceousbentonitechemostratigraphyCampanianmineralogysediment provenanceSussex
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , April 2014 , pp. 327 - 340
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2014 This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2014

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