Use of immobile trace elements for the correlation of Telychian bentonites on Saaremaa Island, Estonia, and mapping of volcanic ash clouds

Abstract

Thirty suspected altered volcanic ash (bentonite) samples from the Nässumaa-825 and Orissaare-859 sections were analysed by the X-ray fluorescence method. Twenty of these samples revealed chemical signs of pure volcanogenic material, one was of mixed terrigenous–volcanogenic origin, and nine were classified as terrigenous claystones. Twenty of the bentonites were correlated, with variable confidence, with bentonites from earlier studied sections; one sample represents a formerly unknown eruption. New and earlier published bentonite correlations were used for tracing the diachronous nature of the Rumba–Velise formations boundary and for composing new isopach schemes of six Telychian bentonites.

Keywords

• bentonites
• K-bentonites
• Telychian
• correlation
• isopach schemes
• East Baltic