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Pyritized diatoms: a good fossil marker in the Upper Paleocene-Lower Eocene sediments from the Belgian and Dieppe-Hampshire Basins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

Y. Van Eetvelde ,
C. Dupuis  and
C. Cornet
Y. Van Eetvelde*
Affiliation:
Département de géologie F.U.N.D.P., 61 rue de Bruxelles, B-5000 Namur, Belgium
C. Dupuis
Affiliation:
Géologie fondamentale et appliquée, Faculté Polytechnique de Mons, rue de Houdain, 9, B-7000 Mons, Belgium, christian.dupuis@hydro.fpms.ac.be
C. Cornet
Affiliation:
Département de géologie F.U.N.D.P., 61 rue de Bruxelles, B-5000 Namur, Belgium, colette.cornet@fundp.ac.be
*
yoann.vaneetvelde@fundp.ac.be(corresponding author)
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Abstract

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Assemblages of brackish and marine diatoms have been examined from Upper Paleocene-Lower Eocene strata of the Belgian Basin (Knokke well) and the Dieppe-Hampshire Basin (Saint-Josse borehole and Ailly sections). The diatoms observed are invariably preserved in pyrite as internal moulds and their siliceous skeletons are completely replaced by pyrite by epigenesis. Three major diatom assemblages have been observed which can be used to approximate the position of the recently defined Paleocene-Eocene boundary (defined by the Carbon Isotope Excursion). This isotope excursion occurs just below the strong increase in the abundance of Fenestrella antiqua and in the vicinity of the abundance peak of Coscinodiscus morsianus var. moelleri. They also allow correlations of the lithostratigraphic units of the Belgian Basin with the formations of the Dieppe-Hampshire and central North Sea Basins. For instance, investigations of diatoms recorded in the Knokke Clay Member of the Knokke well indicate that this unit corresponds to the lower units of the ‘Sparnacian facies’ of the Dieppe-Hampshire Basin and to the Sele Formation of the North Sea Basin.

Keywords

Belgian BasindiatomsPaleocene-Eocene intervalDieppe-Hampshire Basinpyrite
Type
Research Article
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 83 , Issue 3 , September 2004 , pp. 173 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2004

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