Thin section and S.E.M. textural criteria for the recognition of cement-dissolution porosity in sandstones

Cement-porosity relationships are described from the Lower Triassic Sherwood Sandstone Group and the Middle Jurassic Ravenscar Group in the United Kingdom. Calcite cemented sandstones display a variety of replacement textures, with preferential replacement of grains and of overgrowth faces with high free-surface energy. Dolomite and siderite cemented sandstones display similar textures but replacement is less specific and euhedral overgrowth surfaces are commonly embayed by carbonates. Examination of the more porous sandstones with the scanning electron microscope reveals a range of pitting and embayment textures in authigenic overgrowths and in detrital grains. These range from small ‘v’-shaped notches and pits, through regular and irregular shaped embayments, into large depressions. These textures appear to be morphologically similar to the quartz surfaces seen in thin sections of carbonate cemented sandstones, and are interpreted to have been formed by the dissolution of pore-filling and grain replacive authigenic carbonates. This is confirmed by examination of experimentally exhumed overgrowth surfaces from carbonate cemented sandstones. These textures indicate that part of the intergranular porosity in these sediments is secondary in origin, and has been generated by the dissolution of carbonate cements. The identification of such textures may lead to a more confident interpretation of the nature of intergranular porosity in the subsurface.