FRAGMENTAL CLAYROCK (FCR) IN COAL-BEARING SEQUENCES IN SCOTLAND AND NORTH-EAST ENGLAND

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Abstract
Summary: The Carboniferous cyclic sequences of Scotland and north-east England include beds of clayrock mainly 50 to 100 millimetres thick characterized by (1) brecciation and flow structures (2) a high proportion of kaolinite which is partly authigenic (3) an association with coal and (4) local impersistence within a limited lateral extent. They are interpreted as the deposits of lakes in coal-forming swamps and their petrology, mineralogy and geochemistry are consistent with the intense early diagenetic activity found in these environments. This view is supported by the palaeontology of the few fragmental clayrocks that contain fossils. After burial these sediments became metastable and subsequent disturbance of this condition led to physical and chemical reorganization. The FCRs form a continuous lithological series linking hard fine-grained graupen-tonsteins at one extreme with seatclays at the other. Some of the processes that led to the genesis of FCRs, particularly redistribution during flow, may be relevant to the formation of tonsteins and seatclays.

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