Clay mineralogy of altered tephra beds and facies correlation between the Permian-Triassic boundary stratigraphic sets, Guizhou, south China

Abstract The Permian-Triassic boundary (PTB) successions in south China contain numerous altered volcanic ash (tephra) beds (K-bentonites), which presents the opportunity to correlate the PTB position in both marine and non-marine sections, especially when no feasible biostratigraphic markers are available in the profiles. Clay mineralogical and geochemical studies of two altered ash beds in the Zhongzai (ZZ) and Tucheng (TC) sections, in Guizhou Province, south China, deposited in littoral and interactive marine-terrestrial environments, respectively, permit an investigation of the alteration of ash and correlation of ash beds between disparate facies. The results show that the two ZZ altered ashes consist of mainly R1 I/Sm and minor R0 I/Sm. Sample ZZ-1 has slightly more R1 I/Sm but less R0 I/Sm relative to sample ZZ-2. The TC ash samples contain mainly kaolinite and mixed-layer kaolinite/smectite (K/Sm). The poorly-crystallized kaolinite is present in pseudo-hexagonal plates, and the well-crystallized kaolinite occurs in book-like aggregates in veins or cavities. K/Sm minerals are derived from the transformation of smectite to kaolinite. Obviously, the TC ashes experienced terrestrial weathering and resedimentation prior to final burial and preservation, and local microenvironmental conditions control the formation of clay minerals. The ZZ ash samples have markedly higher 87Sr/86Sr values than those of the TC samples. The notable difference in 87Sr/86Sr value of ash beds between the sections is attributed to variations in Rb Sr partitioning during the chemical weathering process in different environments. The ZZ ash samples have notably higher 143Nd/144Nd ratios than those of the TC samples, suggesting that the ZZ ashes are likely derived from eruptions involving continental crust and the TC ashes originate from eruptions involving new continental island arcs, in agreement with the REE distributions and the Ti vs. Zr, TiO2 vs. Al2O3, and Zr/TiO2 vs. Nb/Y discrimination plots. The occurrence of tephras from such markedly different volcanic source materials different in PTB stratigraphic sets previously believed to be synchronous, Guizhou, south China, suggests that correlation between disparate facies by an ash marker requires geochemical fingerprinting of the materials to confirm correlations or otherwise.