Patterns and rates of fluid flow during burial diagenesis of the Middle Jurassic Lincolnshire Limestone, eastern England

A phase of ferroan burial calcite from the Middle Jurassic Lincolnshire Limestone exhibits a systematic spatial arrangement of oxygen isotopic characteristics. Mean δ¹⁸O values of the ferroan calcites from each of 15 core and outcrop localities over a study area 25 × 25 km were obtained. These values show a marked depletion from west to east across the study area of approximately 3‰, such that the oxygen isotopic composition of the ferroan calcites can be contoured. The systematic change in oxygen isotopic composition across the study area is believed to have recorded the thermal gradient in the limestone during ferroan calcite precipitation. This thermal gradient can be partially attributed to approximately 200 m of differential burial of the Lincolnshire Limestone across the study area during the Chalk deposition, with a maximum burial of 550 m to the east of the area at this time. A component of up-dip fluid flow (from east to west) through the formation is required to generate the temperature enhancements above those predicted for conduction alone by simple differential burial. Using a finite-difference step computer program, rates of fluid flow during ferroan calcite precipitation are calculated to be approximately 25 m/year. This rate of fluid flow is considerably greater than rates usually predicted for buried sedimentary basins. The causes of such rapid, probably relatively short-lived flow-rates may be the sudden dewatering of adjacent shales, the release of overpressure within the formation of interest, seismic pumping, or fluid circulation round a supracrustal convective loop.