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Sandstone‐hosted thorium‐bitumen mineralization in the Northwest Irish Basin
Author(s) -
PARNELL JOHN,
MONSON BRYAN
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
sedimentology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.494
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1365-3091
pISSN - 0037-0746
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-3091.1990.tb01842.x
Subject(s) - geology , thorium , carboniferous , mineralization (soil science) , geochemistry , permian , monazite , structural basin , uranium , paleontology , zircon , materials science , soil science , metallurgy , soil water
Low‐grade sandstone‐hosted thorium mineralization is recorded in the Carboniferous Northwest Irish Basin in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The thorium is concentrated within bitumen nodules which are replacive within the sandstones. A source of thorium was available in a Caledonian granite in the basin watershed, and the bitumen was a product of hydrocarbons generated within the basin. The thorium occurs as thorite inclusions in the bitumen, and the development of the nodules was enhanced by the polymerization of fluid hydrocarbons by irradiation from the thorium. Thorium mobility may have been enhanced by the formation of organometallic complexes. Mineralization probably therefore occurred during hydrocarbon migration, dated as Late Carboniferous to Permian.