Discrimination of reworked pyroclastics from primary tephra-fall tuffs: a case study using kimberlites of Fort a la Corne, Saskatchewan, Canada

Abstract

 Reworked volcaniclastics are traditionally discriminated from primary tephra-fall pyroclastics by an absence of features such as blanketing, juvenile lapilli, grain welding and poor sorting. Frequently, these features are difficult to identify, especially in small outcrops, ancient or altered successions, debris flows and surge deposits. Crystal-rich volcaniclastics, such as kimberlites, have a large proportion of coarse euhedral crystals, and abrasion leading to rounding can be recognised and classified with relative ease. A petrographic method of discriminating reworked material has been devised, based on the degree of grain roundness, and is illustrated using volcaniclastic kimberlite from Fort a la Corne, Saskatchewan, Canada. Petrographic thin sections of samples at regular intervals throughout the borehole core, and from a nearby crater-facies kimberlite, show that the percentages of rounded, subrounded and euhedral grains define two distinct groupings. The first group contains a higher percentage of euhedral grains and includes all the samples from the basal 4.8 m of the 14.1-m-thick kimberlite section in borehole 004, and all of the crater facies tephra-fall tuffs. A second group contains more rounded, subrounded and fragmental grains and includes all the data from the upper 6.3 m, which are interpreted as reworked strata. Thus, point counting concurs with hand-sample interpretation and may be used as a verification tool in discriminating reworked pyroclastic sands from primary tephra-fall tuffs.