The ‘Clay-with-Flints’ deposit in Northern Ireland: reassessment of the evidence for an early Paleocene ignimbrite

Cooper, Mark R.; Troll, Valentin R.; Lemon, Kirstin. 2018 The ‘Clay-with-Flints’ deposit in Northern Ireland: reassessment of the evidence for an early Paleocene ignimbrite. Geological Magazine, 155 (8). 1811-1820. 10.1017/S0016756817000760

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0016756817000760

Abstract/Summary

Reassessment of key geological sections, field relationships and petrographical characteristics of the Northern Ireland ‘Clay-with-Flints’ and ‘Donald's Hill Ignimbrite Formation’ show they formed dominantly by sedimentary processes. The involvement of a previously postulated pyroclastic flow during early Paleocene time is not recognized and, as such, the Donald's Hill Ignimbrite Formation stratigraphic term is discounted. Instead a multistage model of formation by sedimentary accumulation and remobilization is presented and the term Clay-with-Flints is retained. Regionally, two dominant facies are recognized in most Clay-with-Flints sections. Facies 1 was formed by an initial accumulation of flints on a chalk landscape undergoing karstification, and involved deposition of a clay matrix derived predominantly from contemporaneous erosion of subtropical soil horizons formed mainly on basalt. In Facies 2, evidence is observed for widespread remobilization of Facies 1 deposits by high-density mudflows driven by the advancement of the Antrim Lava Group, which caused the blockage of subsurface and marginalization of surface drainage. A stratigraphical constraint imposed by the presence of a supposed ignimbrite in this part of the North Atlantic Igneous Province has been problematic, but this is resolved by its identification as a diachronous, sedimentary deposit that formed until buried by either the lower or upper formations of the Antrim Lava Group.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1017/S0016756817000760
ISSN:	0016-7568
Date made live:	22 Dec 2017 13:57 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518826

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1017/S0016756817000760

ISSN:

0016-7568

Date made live:

22 Dec 2017 13:57 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/518826