Diagenesis of an Upper Triassic reef complex, Wilde Kirche, Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria |
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| Authors: | ARTHUR K SATTERLEY J D MARSHALL I J FAIRCHILD |
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| Institution: | School of Earth Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK;Department of Earth Sciences, University of Liverpool, PO Box 147, Liverpool L69 3BX, UK |
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| Abstract: | The Wilde Kirche reef complex (Early-Late Rhaetian) grew as an isolated carbonate structure within the shallow Kössen Basin. At the Triassic/Jurassic boundary a single brief (c. 10–50 ka) period of subaerial exposure occurred. The preserved karst profile (70 m thick) displays a vadose zone, enhanced dissolution at a possible palaeo-watertable (5–15 m below the exposure surface), and a freshwater phreatic zone. Karst porosity was predominantly biomouldic. Primary cavities and biomoulds were enlarged and interconnected in the freshwater phreatic zone; cavity networks developed preferentially in patch reef facies. Resubmergence of the reef complex allowed minor modification of the palaeokarst surface by sea floor dissolution and Fe-Mn crust deposition on a sediment-starved passive margin. Fibrous calcite (FC). radiaxial fibrous calcite (RFC) and fascicular optic calcite (FOC) cements preserved as low Mg calcite (LMC) are abundant in primary and karst dissolution cavities. FC cement is restricted to primary porosity, particularly as a synsedimentary cement at the windward reef margin. FC, RFC and FOC contain microdolomite inclusions and show patchy non-/bright cathodoluminescence. δ18O values of non-luminescent portions (interpreted as near original) are ? 1.16 to ? 1.82%0 (close to the inferred δ18O of calcite precipitated from Late Triassic sea water). δ13C values are constant (+3 to + 2.2%0). These observations suggest FC, RFC and FOC were originally marine high Mg calcite (HMC) precipitates, and that the bulk of porosity occlusion occurred not in the karst environment but in the marine environment during and after marine transgression. The HMC to LMC transition may have occurred in contact with meteoric water only in the case of FC cement. The most altered (brightly luminescent) portions of RFC/FOC cements yield δ18O=?2.44 to ? 5.8%0, suggesting HMC to LMC alteration at up to 34°C. in the shallow burial environment at depths of 180–250 m. Abundant equant cements with δ18O =?4·1 to ?7.1%0 show crisp, uniform or zoned dull luminescence. They are interpreted as unaltered cements precipitated at 33–36°C at 200–290 m burial depth, from marine-derived fluids under a slightly enhanced geothermal gradient. Fluids carrying the equant cements may have induced the HMC to LMC transition in the fibrous cements. |
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