Palaeoenvironmental significance of iron carbonate concretions from the Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) ore-bearing clays at Gnaszyn, Kraków-Silesia Homocline, Poland

Abstract

Iron carbonate concretion horizons are characteristic features of the Bathonian (Middle Jurassic) claystone-mudstone succession at Gnaszyn. They occur in single horizons, which generally represent the same genetic type. The siderite concretions are the main type of iron carbonate concretions at Gnaszyn; a second type is represented by phosphate-siderite concretions. On the basis of the fieldwork, and their petrographical and mineralogical characteristics, the genesis of the concretions and their palaeoenvironmental significance is discussed. The results of this study (based on the localization, mode of occurrence, mineralogy of iron carbonate concretions and also the textural relationship between the concretions and host sediment layers) suggest an early diagenetic origin of the concretions. The preferential occurrence of the concretion horizons in single layers in the ambient sediments was associated with particular conditions of their deposition and early diagenesis, favored by a slower sedimentation rate and more intense bioturbation, and related primarily to the greater availability of reactive iron ions. From the viewpoint of physicochemical conditions the horizons with iron carbonate concretions in the study area reflect the redox boundary between oxic/bioturbated and anoxic/non-bioturbated zones. The conditions favoring the formation of such horizons was possibly due to longer periods of diminished sedimentation rate when the redox boundary remained in the same position within the sediment.