Pedogenic clay-mineral transformation in the Weald Basin: implications for Early Cretaceous hinterland climate reconstructions

Author： Taylor K.G.G.

Publisher： Academic Press

ISSN： 0195-6671

Source： Cretaceous Research, Vol.17, Iss.1, 1996-02, pp. : 103-108

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Abstract

A thin (approximately 1 m) mottled bed from within the non-marine Wealden sediments of southeast England has been studied mineralogically. This bed is interpreted to have formed through soil processes acting shortly after deposition. Its clay mineralogy has been altered from a detrital vermiculite, illite, kaolinite assemblage to one of an ordered illite-smectite (IS ordering with 15-50% smectite), illite and kaolinite. The alteration of the detrital vermiculite to an ordered illite-smectite is proposed to have taken place through repeated wetting and drying cycles. It is concluded that attention should be paid to soil processes that took place shortly after deposition within the Weald Basin when interpreting the palaeoclimate of nearby hinterland from clay mineral assemblages.