Multi-stage alteration history of volcanic clasts containing buddigtonite from Upper Cretaceous strata of the Subsilesian Unit, Czech part of the Outer Flysch Carpathians

Abstract

Floods in 1997 and 2010 exposed the Frýdek and Frýdlant formations of the Subsilesian Unit in the Ostravice River bed near Frýdek-Místek. In the sedimentary sequence of upper Campanian to Maastrichtian marls and paraconglomerates, clasts of strongly altered basic volcanic rock were found, accompanied by carbonate concretions and layers. Rare apatite, biotite, and a Cr-rich spinel subgroup mineral are the only relatively well-preserved primary minerals in the clasts. The matrix contains buddingtonite, albite, sanidine, kaolinite, illite-muscovite, a mineral of the smectite group, and possibly also a mixed structure mineral of the chlorite-smectite type. Laths of buddingtonite, identified by powder X-ray diffraction and wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectrometry, are not homogenous. Their compositions range from Bd41 to Bd59 molar component, with Kfs ranging between 26 and 35 mol%, Nafs between 5 and 27 mol%, and Ca-feldspar between 1 and 4 mol%. The matrix is irregularly dolomitized. Carbonates are also present in pseudomorphs after idiomorphic olivine and in fill of amygdaloidal cavities. These carbonates reveal complicated alteration rock history, having cores of magnesite passing into almost pure siderite outer parts. Calcite is always the youngest and most homogenous carbonate, probably connected with a different geological event. Accompanying carbonate concretions are composed of three dolomitic phases with quartz, calcite, and muscovite. We can conclude that buddingtonite originates in alteration of primary feldspar and/or volcanic glass during the catagenetic breakdown of kerogen in the sediment, surrounded by clayey sediments rich in decomposing organic matter. Volcanic clasts have similar texture and supposed pre-alteration phase composition as the rocks of teschenite association, namely monchiquites to picrites. However, the source of volcanic clast within the sediments remains unclear.