Discussion of Laya et al. (2021), Dissolution of ooids in seawater-derived fluids - an example from Lower Permian re-sedimented carbonates, West Texas, USA [Sedimentology 68(6), 2671-2706]

Abstract

This discussion reassesses earlier interpretations of calcareous turbidites from the subsurface Spraberry Formation of the Happy Field (Garza County, NW Texas). It is based on routine petrographic analyses with a standard microscope. The succession of diagenetic products in this deep water setting were a little initial cementation by low magnesian calcite (LMC) and then the partial or complete leaching of both aragonite and high magnesian calcite (HMC) allochems facilitated by the presence of a residual primary intergranular porosity. This contradicts Laya et al.'s (2021) claim that cementation left no residual intergranular porosity so further leaching of the ooids would not have been possible. Instead the study made for this discussion with the same thin sections found residual primary intergranular porosity remains as evidenced by some of their photomicrographs. Most thin sections with porous grainstones have 1) collapsed molds that exhibit evidence of little initial cementation and 2) measured permeability values that range from some mD to some tens of mD. Isopachous LMC cements occur in almost all thin sections lining the margins of most intergranular pores. As these cements do not fully fill the pores, there is permeable well-connected residual primary porosity with no significant LMC cement in the secondary moldic porosity. Compaction affects the allochems and, where these are partially leached, intergranular and moldic porosities. Dissolution of aragonite (a major component) and HMC (possibly a minor component) was probably not coeval. The order of paragenetic sequence of this discussion study was: 1) LMC cementation; 2) aragonite leaching facilitated by oxidation of the organic matter in the "biocrystals" of bioclasts and oolitic cortices; 3) compactional brecciation, which was first mechanical, and then chemical causing local collapse of the molds of some of the largest pores. It was governed by cementation initially in a shallow burial diagenetic setting and then leaching whereas chemical compaction marks a slightly deeper burial diagenetic setting. The final event was marked by oil migration into the Happy Field reservoirs, freezing the calcium carbonate diagenesis. The theory of Laya et al. (2021) of the leaching of ooids in directly "seawater-derived fluids" is unsupported by the paragenetic sequence described above.