Siderite (FeCO3)—the Hidden (but Primary) Player in Iron Diagenesis of Non-Marine Sandstones

Abstract:

Siderite precipitates in reducing pore waters in which iron reduction exceeds sulfate reduction. Abundant siderite should be expected in non-marine strata in which a reductant was present. The Triassic Shinarump Member (Chinle Fm) and Cretaceous Dakota Fm are fluvial and contain siderite in outcrops of floodplain mudstones. Siderite is present in cores of Dakota channel sandstones. Rinded and jointed iron-oxide concretions, Wonderstone patterns, and rhombic, iron-oxide pseudomorphs are present in outcrops of these sandstones. Vascular plants growing on floodplains provided the reductant. Similar concretions, patterns, and pseudomorphs are present in outcropping eolian cross-strata of the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone and in fluvial sandstone of the Cambrian Umm Ishrin Fm. Bleached sandstones indicate reductant was present in both units during late diagenesis. Because Jurassic deserts and Cambrian river systems lacked vascular plants, extra-formational methane was the likely reductant. We interpret the various iron-oxide-cemented phenomena of the Shinarump, Dakota, Navajo, and Umm Ishrin as products of siderite oxidation that accompanied exhumation.

In the Navajo, large concretions are enclosed in thick sheaths of iron-oxide cement. Through-going horizontal and vertical joints cut sheaths. Outside concretion sheaths, joints are unassociated with iron-oxide cements, but inside the sheaths, thick cement zones are present on both sides of (still-open) joints. Joints were conduits for oxidizing water entering the concretions. Redox gradients formed on both sides of joints and iron oxide accumulated as Fe⁺² diffused from dissolving siderite toward joints and O₂ diffused away from joints. Horizontal joints formed <100 m from the land surface. Iron-oxide accumulations on the horizontal joints and on the vertical joints that abut them (see figure) are evidence that siderite oxidation is ongoing and linked to exhumation.