Revisiting Glauconite Geochronology: Lessons Learned from In Situ Radiometric Dating of a Glauconite-Rich Cretaceous Shelfal Sequence

• The scarcity of well-preserved and directly dateable sedimentary sequences is a major impediment to inferring the Earth's paleo-environmental evolution. The authigenic mineral glauconite can potentially provide absolute stratigraphic ages for sedimentary sequences and constraints on paleo-depositional conditions. This requires improved approaches for measuring and interpreting glauconite formation ages. Here, glauconite from a Cretaceous shelfal sequence (Langenstein, northern Germany) was characterized using petrographical, geochemical (EMP), andmineralogical (XRD) screening methods before in situ Rb-Sr dating via LA-ICP-MS/MS. The obtained glauconite ages (similar to 101 to 97 Ma) partly overlap with the depositional age of the Langenstein sequence (+/- 3 Ma), but without the expected stratigraphic age progression, which we attribute to detrital and diagenetic illitic phase impurities inside the glauconites. Using a novel age deconvolution approach, which combines the new Rb-Sr dataset with published K-Ar ages, we recalculate the glauconite bulk ages to obtain stratigraphically significant 'pure' glauconite ages (similar to 100 to 96 Ma). Thus, our results show that pristine ages can be preserved in mineralogically complex glauconite grains even under burial diagenetic conditions (T < 65 degrees C; <1500 m depth), confirming that glauconite could be a suitable archive for paleo-environmental reconstructions and direct sediment dating.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

glauconite

radiometric dating

in situ Rb-Sr geochronology

diagenesis

illitization

LA-ICP-MS/MS

green-clay authigenesis

volcanic ash

isotopic constraints

penganga

group

sr

rb

fe

chemistry

evolution

origin

Geochemistry & Geophysics

Mineralogy

Mining & Mineral Processing

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)