Palygorskite-cemented crusts (palycretes) in Southern Portugal

Abstract

In the Oriola depression of Southern Portugal near the town of Evora, field examinations revealed the presence of Tertiary sedimentary deposits that had the consistency of duricrusts. These duricrusts, occurring close to the land surface, were examined in the field as well as in the laboratory, with the objective of establishing their composition and formation. Micromorphological examinations showed that the duricrusts were composed of clasts of fine sand to fine gravel sizes cemented together by a matrix dominated by either palygorskite or carbonate. The matrix : clasts ratio varied from about 1 : 3 when the cement was carbonate, to 3 : 1 or higher when the matrix was palygorskite. Occasionally the ratio in the latter was even higher. The clasts consisted of quartz, feldspar, and some Mg-rich metamorphic minerals. The palygorskite matrix fibres were arranged in mats within which they had parallel orientation. The mats or ‘domains’, which had a length of 15–25 □m and a width of about 40 □m, showed random orientation. In analogy to the term ‘calcrete’ the term ‘palycrete’ is used for the palygorskite duricrusts. The palycrete, of an average thickness of 0.5 m, frequently rested directly on the Hercynian basement rocks, and was covered by a recent solum. In the B horizons of the solum, the palygorskite appeared to undergo recent weathering and transformation into smectite. The duricrusts were proposed to have formed by authigenic calcite or palygorskite, which filled the interstices between clastic particles that had been deposited on Hercynian basement rocks following their peneplanation in the early Tertiary. The proposed environment of deposition and formation was that of an intermittent playa-lake in a semi-arid, seasonal climate, where strong evaporative processes had been active. Alteration and weathering of the mafic minerals contained in some of the clasts, in addition to interstitial solutions rich in Si and Mg, had created the chemical environment required for palygorskite neoformation. From the state of weathering–disintegration of the palygorskite in the soils formed on the palycrete, it is inferred that the environment for palygorskite neoformation had ceased to exist after palycrete formation.