Aluminosilicate cementation of saprolites, grits and silcretes in Western Australia

Abstract

Amorphous to poorly crystalline aluminosilicates have been found as cementing agents within saprolites, hardpans and silcretes, particularly in granitic terrains in the Yilgarn Block, Western Australia. The cements range mineralogically from siliceous allophane to a kaolinite‐opal‐CT assemblage probably derived from the allophane. The allophane is non‐crystalline, with no distinctive X‐ray or electron diffraction patterns, and has close optical similarities to opaline silica. It is characterised by Al/Si ratios of 0.35–1.0, with small amounts of adsorbed iron and titanium. It occurs as colloform void and vein fillings, and permeating the kaolinitic matrix of saprolites. The kaolinite and opal‐CT have a similar occurrence, with the kaolinite oriented parallel to colloform and related banding. The aluminosilicate cements are found in saprolite, usually in the upper zones, and in overlying grits and silcretes. At Gabbin, in the central Yilgarn, the grits are up to 10 m thick and have aluminosilicate as the only cement. Although very hard when in situ, the grits tend to disaggregate on exposure and rarely, if ever, crop out. In profiles exposed in breakaways of the Barr‐Smith Range in the northern Yilgarn, the saprolite is overlain by silcretes with a quartz‐anatase‐zircon assemblage as cementing matrix, in turn overlain by alumino‐silicate‐cemented grits. The contact is gradational, and most silcretes and grits contain both types of cement, with the aluminosilicate increasing in abundance upwards. Kaolinitic spherules in sand plains are possibly derived from similar aluminosilicates.