Abstract
Visual inspection (optical microscope point counting) and silica abundance show that laminated shale from the Late Cretaceous of Colombia contains high levels of detrital quartz silt and sand particles. Closer examination using the charge contrast imaging (CCI) technique, however, illustrates that much of the quartz is authigenic micro-quartz, and thus not exclusively of detrital origin. In addition, many “sand” grains that otherwise appear to represent simple detrital quartz particles are actually of biogenic origin, representing the tests of agglutinated foraminifera, formed from cemented silt-sized quartz particles. Finally, CCI shows that original detrital grains have undergone authigenic modification, with both syntaxial overgrowths and micro-quartz. Without recognition of these features, the relative proportion of detrital quartz (sand) would otherwise be greatly overestimated, with important implications for environmental interpretation. Furthermore, the recognition of biogenic structures, including agglutinated foraminifera, provides additional environmental information that otherwise could be easily overlooked.
Acknowledgments
Nelson Sanchez and Freddy Nino from Ecopetrol for providing study samples, data, and geological background information. Ecopetrol provided funding for the analysis and the project. Bernhard Schnetger (ICBM, Oldenburg) for XRF analysis. Georgina Rosair provided XRD analysis (Fig. 8). This manuscript has also been improved through the comments of Kitty Milliken, Mathias Bernet, and Lynda Williams, which we greatly appreciate.
References cited
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Articles in the same Issue
- Review: Minerals in the Human Body
- Mineral precipitation and dissolution in the kidney
- Special Collection: Nanominerals and Mineral Nanoparticles
- Luogufengite: A new nano-mineral of Fe2O3 polymorph with giant coercive field
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- Magmatic graphite inclusions in Mn-Fe-rich fluorapatite of perphosphorus granites (the Belvís pluton, Variscan Iberian Belt)
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Articles in the same Issue
- Review: Minerals in the Human Body
- Mineral precipitation and dissolution in the kidney
- Special Collection: Nanominerals and Mineral Nanoparticles
- Luogufengite: A new nano-mineral of Fe2O3 polymorph with giant coercive field
- Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
- Column anion arrangements in chemically zoned ternary chlorapatite and fluorapatite from Kurokura, Japan
- Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
- Magmatic graphite inclusions in Mn-Fe-rich fluorapatite of perphosphorus granites (the Belvís pluton, Variscan Iberian Belt)
- Special Collection: Apatite: A Common Mineral, Uncommonly Versatile
- Barometric constraints based on apatite inclusions in garnet
- Special collection: Olivine
- A comparison of olivine-melt thermometers based on DMg and DNi: The effects of melt composition, temperature, and pressure with applications to MORBs and hydrous arc basalts
- Special collection: Dynamics of magmatic processes
- Water transfer during magma mixing events: Insights into crystal mush rejuvenation and melt extraction processes
- Special collection: Rates and depths of magma ascent on earth
- A new clinopyroxene-liquid barometer, and implications for magma storage pressures under Icelandic rift zones
- The S content of silicate melts at sulfide saturation: New experiments and a model incorporating the effects of sulfide composition
- Bond valence and bond energy
- Fluvial transport of impact evidence from cratonic interior to passive margin: Vredefort-derived shocked zircon on the Atlantic coast of South Africa
- Iron partitioning in natural lower-mantle minerals: Toward a chemically heterogeneous lower mantle
- Identifying biogenic silica: Mudrock micro-fabric explored through charge contrast imaging
- Compressibility and high-pressure structural behavior of Mg2Fe2O5
- Thermo-elastic behavior of grossular garnet at high pressures and temperatures
- Experimental constraints on the stability of baddeleyite and zircon in carbonate- and silicate-carbonate melts
- Polarized FTIR spectroscopic examination on hydroxylation in the minerals of the wolframite group, (Fe,Mn,Mg)[W,(Nb,Ta)][O,(OH)]4
- Tourmaline-rich features in the Heemskirk and Pieman Heads granites from western Tasmania, Australia: Characteristics, origins, and implications for tin mineralization
- Ca L2,3-edge near edge X-ray absorption fine structure of tricalcium aluminate, gypsum, and calcium (sulfo)aluminate hydrates
- Fluorwavellite, Al3(PO4)2(OH)2F·5H2O, the fluorine analog of wavellite
- New Mineral Names
- Book Review
- Book Review: Geochemical Rate Models: An Introduction to Geochemical Kinetics
- Book Review
- Book Review: Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History
- Erratum
- Calibration of Fe XANES for high-precision determination of Fe oxidation state in glasses: Comparison of new and existing results obtained at different synchrotron radiation sources