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Morphological characteristics and growth influencing factors of Paleocene glauberite minerals in Jiangling Depression, China

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Abstract

Glauberite is the most common mineral in the ancient sodium sulphate deposits in the Jianghan Basin, although its origin, primary or diagenetic, continues to be a matter of debate. A number of glauberite deposits of Paleocene age in the Jiangling Depression display facies characteristics of sedimentologic significance. Based on field investigation and laboratory analysis, we determined three characteristics forms, rhombus I, rhombus II and long tabular shape. The glauberite crystal shapes in the south of Jiangling Depression mainly are macrocrystalline rhombus I and II, with the secondary amount of medium-grained crystal long tabular glauberite. This type of glauberite is interpreted as an unrest, shallow water and quickly crystallization, undergoing a strong evaporation along the lake basin boundary system. In the interior of the Jiangling Depression, glauberite assemblage is made up of fine-medium grained crystals of glauberite. The depositional environment is interpreted as a static and deeper water environment, which experienced a slow crystallization process. By studying morphology characteristics and depositional conditions of glauberite, we consider that different types of shapes and groups are the products of lake water evaporating under different climate conditions. Glauberite–halite lithofacies association is distinguished: association is composed of thin-bedded cloudy halite and thin-bedded glauberite. Transparent glauberite cemented by clear halite as well as normal-graded and reverse-graded glauberite textures are common. This type of transparent glauberite is interpreted as a primary, subaqueous precipitate. The glauberite in the Jiangling Depression are mainly stratified with typical rhythmic bedding, which is composed of the interaction between glauberite lamina and argillaceous dolomitic lamina or dolomitic argillaceous lamina. The tuberculous glauberite has remarkable top bending structure, which shows the penecontemporaneous in the process of its diagenesis. The evaporite cycle sequence of drillhole indicates that the brine of the salt lake in the south of Jiangling Depression is Na–K–Ca–Cl–SO4 type in the Paleocene.

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modified from Meng et al. 2014)

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Acknowledgements

We thank Chenglin Liu, Donghong Li and Peng Chen for providing assistance, and the State Key Laboratory for Continental Tectonics and Dynamics, Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and the China National Research Center for performing the geochemical analyses. This research was supported by the NSF China (Nos. U20A2092, 42002106, 41907262 and 41502089), the Central Welfare Basic Scientific Research Business Expenses (Nos. KK2005 and KK2016), the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2011CB403007), and the China Geological Survey (No. DD20190606).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MNR Key Laboratory of Metallogeny and Mineral Assessment, Institute of Mineral Resources, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, 100037, China

    Chunlian Wang, Kai Yan & Ruiqin Li

  2. Oil and Gas Survey, China Geological Survey, Beijing, 100083, China

    Lihong Liu

  3. School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Lihong Liu

  4. Institute of Oil and Gas, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Lihong Liu

  5. Faculty of Earth Science, University of Iceland, Sturlugata 7, Askja, 101, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Kai Yan

  6. Department of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, 13902, USA

    Ruiqin Li

  7. Institute of Geological Survey, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Chao You

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Wang, C., Liu, L., Yan, K. et al. Morphological characteristics and growth influencing factors of Paleocene glauberite minerals in Jiangling Depression, China. Carbonates Evaporites 37, 24 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-022-00767-4

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