Near-surface shrinkage and carbonate replacement processes, Arran Cornstone Formation, Scotland

Abstract

A 47 m thick succession of conglomerates, sandstones and mudstones, of Late Devonian or Early Carboniferous age, outcrops at Fallen Rocks in northeast Arran (western Scotland). It is defined here as the type section of the Arran Cornstone Formation. At numerous levels in the succession, varieties of fissures and carbonate concretions formed during the accumulation of the Formation. The fissures opened as a result of drying-shrinkage, and were closed again either by filling with different sediment, or by wetting and expansion of the fissure wall sediment. Carbonate concretions form complete beds, discontinuous, bedding-concordant sheets, or bedding-discordant nodules or rods (the rod cornstones). These concretions formed close enough to the surface to be incorporated, after erosion and redeposition, as clasts into overlying beds. The concretions were formed by growth of micrite, mainly by replacement, but shrinkage displacement played an important role in subsequently fracturing and reworking the micrite. The micrite was also locally replaced by microspar and spar, and this involved dissolution and precipitation. No independent evidence of biological influence in any of these processes has been found.