Diagenetic apatite character and in situ ion microprobe U–Pb age, Keeseville Formation, Potsdam Group, New York State

Abstract

An occurrence of diagenetic fluorapatite cement is documented within the Cambro-Ordovician Keeseville Formation, Potsdam Group, near Chateaugay in New York State. The fluorapatite cement occurs as stratiform layers within ephemeral fluvial quartz arenites, which have been reworked by aeolian processes prior to burial. The paragenetic sequence includes the following: compaction of dust-rimmed grains → quartz cementation → minor kaolinite → fluorapatite cementation followed by secondary dissolution porosity and telogenetic hematite cementation. Mesogenetic illitization of kaolinite may have taken place prior to or following fluorapatite cementation. The fluorapatite occurs as elongated bladed crystals that characteristically contain ladder-like, inclusion-rich cores running parallel to crystal length, surrounded by clearer rims, and larger blocky crystals towards the middle of interstices. In situ SHRIMP analyses of blocky fluorapatite crystals yield a U–Pb age of 486 ± 29 Ma, indicating that the cement formed during mesogenetic burial processes and (or) during fluid flow driven by Taconic orogenic events. There is no obvious source of phosphorous for the fluorapatite cement within the Potsdam Group, but phosphorous-rich lithologies are known from the adjacent basement of the Adirondack Dome. Phosphorous-rich fluids may have been derived from these basement lithologies. The occurrence of the rare fluorapatite cement in the Keeseville Formation adjacent to the Chateaugay Lake Fault raises the possibility that alkaline phosphatic fluids were focused within the fault and migrated laterally away from the fault into the host Keeseville Formation to form stratiform fluorapatite cement in the sandstone.