Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry of Combustion Metamorphic Rocks in the Northeastern Ordos Basin, China: Implications for the Origin of “White Sandstone”

Abstract

Since the Quaternary period, tectonic uplift and river erosion in the northeastern Ordos Basin (northwest China) have exhumed numerous coal seams, creating the conditions for the development of coal fires following their spontaneous combustion or other types of ignition (e.g., lightning strikes). Coal fires activity is testified by the widespread occurrence of combustion metamorphic rocks. In this study, thin section analyses, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) were used to investigate in detail the mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of combustion metamorphic rocks in the Jurassic succession of the northeastern Ordos Basin. The samples collected in localities distributed over an area of about 8000 km2 were analyzed to determine their mineral association, revealing the presence of tridymite, cristobalite, mullite, and cordierite that are typically produced in pyrometamorphic reactions. XRF and ICP-MS analyses revealed that combustion metamorphic rocks are iron-enriched. Investigations in the study area also highlighted the occurrence of a peculiar, porous, and permeable white sandstone that appears often associated with clinkers or coal seams. It is composed of quartz and feldspar grains and cemented by kaolinite. It is here suggested that the white color of this sandstone could be due to coal fire-related kaolinization of a sandstone protolith produced by the acidic low-temperature hydrothermal circulation of rain waters during times of coal fire activity.