Sedimentology (2003) 50, 1035–1060 doi: 10.1046/j.1365-3091.2003.00592.x Characterization and correlation of Upper Jurassic (Oxfordian) bentonite deposits in the Paris Basin and the Subalpine Basin, France PIERRE PELLENARD*, JEAN-FRANCOIS DECONINCK*, WARREN D. HUFF , JACQUES THIERRYà, DIDIER MARCHANDà, DOMINIQUE FORTWENGLER§ and ALAIN TROUILLER– *Morphodynamique continentale et coˆtie`re, UMR 6143 CNRS, University of Rouen, Department of Earth Sciences, 76821 Mont St Aignan Cedex, France (E-mail:
[email protected]) University of Cincinnati, Department of Geology, PO Box 210013, Cincinnati, OH 45221-00, USA àBioge´osciences-Dijon, UMR 5561CNRS, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Burgundy, 6 bd Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France §Le Clos des Vignes, Quartier Perry, 26160 La Be´gude de Mazenc, France –ANDRA, Parc de la Croix Blanche, 1–7 rue Jean Monnet, 92298 Chaˆtenay-Malabry, France ABSTRACT Explosive volcanic activity is recorded in the Upper Jurassic of the Paris Basin and the Subalpine Basin of France by the identification of five bentonite horizons. These layers occur in Lower Oxfordian (cordatum ammonite zone) to Middle Oxfordian (plicatilis zone) clays and silty clays deposited in outer platform environments. In the Paris Basin, a thick bentonite (10–15 cm), identified in boreholes and in outcrop, is dominated by dioctahedral smectite (95%) with trace amounts of kaolinite, illite and chlorite. In contrast, five bentonites identified in the Subalpine Basin, where burial diagenesis and fluid circulation were more important, are composed of a mixture of kaolinite and regular or random illite/smectite mixed-layer clays in variable proportions, indicating a K-bentonite. In the Subalpine Basin, a 2–15 cm thick bentonite underlain by a layer affected by sulphate–carbonate mineralization can be correlated over 2000 km2.