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Vitrinite Reflectance Data from the Kinsale Harbour-Old Head of Kinsale Area, Southern Ireland, and Its Bearing on the Interpretation of the Munster Basin

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Vitrinite Reflectance Data from the Kinsale Harbour-Old Head of Kinsale Area, Southern Ireland, and Its Bearing on the Interpretation of the Munster Basin Journal ofrhe Geological Society, London, Vol. 146, 1989, pp. 611-616, 3 figs, 2 tables. Printed in Northern Ireland Vitrinite reflectance data from the Kinsale Harbour-Old Head of Kinsale area, southern Ireland, and its bearing on the interpretation of the Munster Basin GEOFFREY CLAYTON Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland Abstract: Vitrinitereflectance of theUpper Devonian-Carboniferous succession in theKinsale Harbour-Old Head of Kinsale area ranges from 4.06-5.21% (R,) and 6.21-7.82% (Rmax)which is indicative of meta-anthracite coal rank. No correlation is apparent between vitrinite reflectance and stratigraphic position through c. 2 km of section, suggesting that near-maximum temperatures were maintained until after Variscan folding. Low reflectance values of 0.62% and 0.30-0.35% (R,) at the local base of the Jurassic succession in the North Celtic Sea Basin (Well 48/30-1) and onshore at Cloyne respectively, indicate a major discontinuity in thematuration profile in theregion. Com- parison with high reflectance gradients from Upper Palaeozoic successionsin the Halen and Turnhout boreholes in Belgium and the Miinsterland No. 1 borehole in West Germany suggests that a thick (5-7 km) cover of pre-Permo-Tnassic rocks must once have been present in the Munster Basin to accountfor the high maturationlevels observed. Whether the cover wasemplaced by Silesian sedimentation or by late Palaeozoic thrustingis unclear. Thestratigraphic successionin the KinsaleHarbour-Old maximumreflectance (Rmax) and minimumreflectance Head of Kinsale area consists of morethan 2 km of (Rmi,) weremeasured by rotation of eachparticle in uppermost Devonian and Carboniferous clastic sediments. plane-polarized light. In many of the samples, however, the Five formations are recognized representing a wide range of small particle size precluded measurement of R,, and Rmi,, shallow todeep marine depositional environments. The andmean random reflectance was determinedin non- succession is dominated by sandstonesand mudrocks in polarized light. In this paper ‘mean random reflectance’ is subequal quantitites, with thin limestones present within the abbreviated to ‘R,’ rather than ‘Rran’or ‘R;. The highest Courtmacsherry Formation. A strong axial planar cleavage 10% of the R,, and lowest 10% of the Rminwere taken as is developed in the mudrocks and finer-grained sandstones. the bestapproximation thetotrue R,,, and Assumingtectonic shortening of 30%in themudrocks respectively,following Cook et al. (1972).Cubic zirconia associatedwith cleavage development,and 20%in the (R,,, 3.28%)and silicon carbide (R,= 7.54%)standards sandstones, the pre-deformation thickness of the currently were utilized. exposedsuccession may have been c. 2.7km. Numerous accounts of the sedimentology, litho- and biostratigraphy of thearea have been published, includingClayton et al. Maturation data (1974), Higgs ef al. (1988), Kuijpers (1972), Naylor (1966, Mean reflectance (l?,) varies from 4.06% to 5.21% (Table 1969), Van Gelder & Clayton (1987). E-W to ENE-WNW l), with standard deviations from 0.31 to 1.06. The mean of trending Variscan folds are the dominant tectonic structures the highest 10% of the maximum reflectance (Rmax) varies in the area (Fig. 1). from6.21% to 7.82%;the corresponding minima ranging Palynologicalinvestigations of the area (Clayton et al. from 2.15% to 3.29%. The vitrinite reflectance and spore 1974; Van Gelder & Clayton 1978; Higgs et al. 1988) reveal colour dataare totally consistent,and indicate that the highly carbonizedmiospores. These were all blackwith wholesection is of meta-anthraciterank in terms of the commonstructural damage, equivalent to ‘Thermal North American (ASTM) coal rank classification (Table 2). AlterationIndex’ 4-5 interms of Staplin’s1969/1977 Maturation level is controlled by bothtemperature and classification. The geographicallocations of selected duration of heating,but the lowerboundary of the palynologysamples are shownin Fig. 1. Further work meta-anthracite rank clearly indicates palaeotemperatures in intended to produce more precise estimates of maturation excess of 250 “C (Hkroux et al. 1978). level hasinvolved vitrinite reflectance determination from There is little variationin vitrinite reflectance in the 21 samples in the area. The geographical and stratigraphical KinsaleHarbour-Old Head of Kinsale area,and no positions of the productive samples are summarized inFigs 1 apparentcorrelation between reflectance and the strat- and 2respectively. Organic residues were obtained by igraphic position of the samples (Fig. 2); Isotherms appear standardhydrofluoric acid techniques. After drying and to be horizontal or near-horizontal and undeflected by the mounting in cold-setting resin, these were ground flat using major folds, which in the area discussed involve at least a silicon carbide paper and then polished with 1 pm, 0.25 pm stratigraphic thicknessof 2 km. and 0.04 pm grade alumina laps. Whole-rock mounts proved unsatisfactory due to the low vitrinite contentof the samples. Burial history Vitrinitereflectance was determined usinga kitz MPV-1microscope/photometer under standard conditions Offshore,within theNorth Celtic Sea Basin, maturation (British Standard 6127, 1981 part 5). Wheneverpossible, levels in theCarboniferous economic basement are 611 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/jgs/article-pdf/146/4/611/4889634/gsjgs.146.4.0611.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 612 G. CLAYTON White Strand Frn. mLispatrlck Frn. Courtmacsherry Fm. ............. Pigs Cove Mbr. ....... Narrow Cove Mbr. Castle Slate Mbr. Old Head Sandstone ... Anticline +Synclln. -- - Fault Reflectance Sarrple 1 t Miospore Sample ...;;;fl......... ....... Fig. 1. Location of vitrinite reflectance samples, and selected spore colour samples. Generalized geology of the Kinsale Harbour-Old Head of Kinsale area after Naylor (1966), Naylor er al. (1985) and Van Gelder & Clayton, (1978). considerablyhigher than in the Mesozoiccover. For correlatives of the Carboniferous Narrow Cove Member of example, inEsso-Marathon well 48/30-1(see Fig. 1 for the Kinsale Formation. R, values from the latter unit range location), R, increases throughthe Lower Cretaceous- from 4.52% to 4.93% (Haughey & Claytonunpublished Jurassic section at a rate of 0.12% per km, to 0.62% at the data). base of the Jurassicsequence. Approximately 400 mof At Cloyne, 35 km northeast of Kinsale (Fig. l), a very barrenTriassic redbeds separate the Jurassic fromtime thin Lower-Middle Jurassic lacustrine deposit known as the Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/jgs/article-pdf/146/4/611/4889634/gsjgs.146.4.0611.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 VITRINITEFROM KINSALE, IRELAND 613 Table 1. Summary of vitrinite reflectance determinations completed ReflectanceStandardNumber TopNumberLowest10% 10% sample R,,, (%) deviation of grains R,,, (%) Rmi, (%) of grains 1 4.41 0.90 100 - - - 2 4.50 0.67 100 0.67 4.50 2 - - - 3 4.22 0.70 49 - - - 4 4.30 4 1.06 100 7.54 2.15 100 4.73 0.77 78 0.775 4.73 - - - 4.86 0.80 100 6.21 3.29 6.21 100 0.806 4.86 100 7 4.51 0.63 100 0.63 4.51 7 - - - 8 4.82 0.60 100 - - - 9 5.213.31 0.447.82 100 100 4.83 0.67 100 0.6710 4.83 - - - 4.93 0.89 100 7.11 100 0.8911 4.93 3.11 100 12 4.14 0.61 100 0.61 4.14 12 - - - 4.23 0.51 100 0.5113 4.23 - - - 140.48 4.47 100 - - - 15 4.65 0.49 100 - - - 16 5.05 0.36 100 6.72 3.20 100 17 4.61 0.31 100 0.31 4.61 17 - - - 18 4.12 0.66 100 - - - 19 4.25 0.73 4.25 19 64 - - - 20 4.06 0.46 100 - - - 21 4.22 0.65 4.22 21 55 1002.89 7.39 Table 2. Correlation of vitrinite reflectance, spore colour, coal rank ColbondClay is preservedin small depressions on the and palaeotemperature (T) (assuming 2230 Mu duration), after CarboniferousLimestone surface (Bishopp & McCluskey Hhow et al. (1978), Stach et al. (1982) and Staplin (1969, 1977) 1948, Higgs & Beese1986). Mean reflectance (R,) determinationsfrom two samples of theseclays of COAL RANK Rmax Rm SPORE T KINSALE 0.30-0.35% suggest only very limited post Middle Jurassic (ASTM) (X) (W) :oLouI; (‘C) RANGE burial of this area(Clayton, Haughey & Thompson - - unpublished information). Organic maturation in the Munster Basin-North Celtic Peat SeaBasin clearly post-dates the youngestsediments - 0.3 affected, which are of Lower Namurian age, but pre-dates Lignite deposition of the oldestnon-affected rocks in the region a, (LowerJurassic). The uniformity of maturationlevel c 65 a a throughout the Kinsale Harbour-Old Head of Kinsale area, sub-Bituminous regardless of stratigraphicposition ortectonic setting suggests that maximum temperatureswere maintained at - 0.5 least until the termination of Variscan folding. The timing of Variscan folding in southern Ireland and in the North Celtic Sea Basin is poorly constrained stratigraphically due to the Bituminous 120 absence of upper Silesian and Permian strata in the region. c However, K-Ar ages of clay concentrates from post-folding fissure veins at several localities in southwest Ireland suggest I2 2.2 - 2.0 m ’ 200 mineralization at approximately 290 Ma(Halliday & ;emi-Anthracite Mitchell 1983), which is consistent with folding during latest Carboniferous (Stephanian) or early Permian times. 2.8 - 2.5 . 250 There is no positive record of Permian deposition either Y onshore in southern Ireland, or offshore in the Celtic Sea Anthracite - 3.0 0 W Basins, though the basal part of the undated ‘Triassic’ red h5 6.0 - 5.0 bedsuccession offshore could conceivably be Permian in age.Although there is no directevidence of maturation ?eta-anthracite level within the (pre-Rhaetian) Trias, it is unlikely that this 10-18 wouldvary significantly fromthat of the conformably- overlying Jurassic section. Graphite Major problems exist in attempting to explain the high rank of theCarboniferous rocks by simpleburial Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/jgs/article-pdf/146/4/611/4889634/gsjgs.146.4.0611.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 614 G.
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