The bentonite clays of the thermopolis shale are also well known because that particular bentonite is the main ingredient of drilling fluids, wellbore annular seals, and other well construction and drilling material.
I had a chance to investigate a closed oil refinery in the town of Lovell a few years back, adjacent to the wyo-ben facility and the soils and outcrops of the shale were everywhere surrounding the investigation. interestingly - like the crocodiles of the thermopolis shale, the folks of Lovell suggested that someone's pet crocodiles (or maybe alligators) were thrown into the tar lagoons of the oil refinery prior to the lagoons being backfilled. We found no evidence of that. Lovell is an interesting town - I recall one evening in the Shoshone bar a british guy came in, wearing an ascot...he rolled his own cigarettes from a coffee-can sized container of tobacco. During a round of drinks, he informed us that he was an ex-pat from england that had settled outside of Lovell to raise sheep...not sure whatever happened to him.
The replacement of iron sulfide by apatite in a fluorine-poor enviroment is wild to think about from a geochemical standpoint. What gets me is the carbonate substitution for phosphate - I spent a semester lookign at similar substitution patterns in tooth enamel and never expected to see it pop up in sedimentary contexts with rare-earth enrichment on top. The spherulitic radial structure preserving the original marcasite/pyrite form really drives home how selective replacement processes can be. Makes me wonder if there are other undocumented cases hiding in black shales that just got lumped in as generic "phosphatic nodules."
Agreed, of course. You will note that I didn't even try to explain HOW apatite might replace marcasite/pyrite. At least in the carbonate for phosphate it's a reasonable size substitution. Re kidney stones, they used to routinely report "calcium carbonate" back when analyses were only chemical, but in the 20,000 urinary stones I analyzed crystallographically, I think only 3 were actually calcite. The rest of the carbonate was in the apatite structure, enough that sometimes, an apatite kidney stone would effervesce (slightly, not really even as much as unpowdered dolomite might).
The bentonite clays of the thermopolis shale are also well known because that particular bentonite is the main ingredient of drilling fluids, wellbore annular seals, and other well construction and drilling material.
I had a chance to investigate a closed oil refinery in the town of Lovell a few years back, adjacent to the wyo-ben facility and the soils and outcrops of the shale were everywhere surrounding the investigation. interestingly - like the crocodiles of the thermopolis shale, the folks of Lovell suggested that someone's pet crocodiles (or maybe alligators) were thrown into the tar lagoons of the oil refinery prior to the lagoons being backfilled. We found no evidence of that. Lovell is an interesting town - I recall one evening in the Shoshone bar a british guy came in, wearing an ascot...he rolled his own cigarettes from a coffee-can sized container of tobacco. During a round of drinks, he informed us that he was an ex-pat from england that had settled outside of Lovell to raise sheep...not sure whatever happened to him.
Great story - thanks for sharing that.
The replacement of iron sulfide by apatite in a fluorine-poor enviroment is wild to think about from a geochemical standpoint. What gets me is the carbonate substitution for phosphate - I spent a semester lookign at similar substitution patterns in tooth enamel and never expected to see it pop up in sedimentary contexts with rare-earth enrichment on top. The spherulitic radial structure preserving the original marcasite/pyrite form really drives home how selective replacement processes can be. Makes me wonder if there are other undocumented cases hiding in black shales that just got lumped in as generic "phosphatic nodules."
Agreed, of course. You will note that I didn't even try to explain HOW apatite might replace marcasite/pyrite. At least in the carbonate for phosphate it's a reasonable size substitution. Re kidney stones, they used to routinely report "calcium carbonate" back when analyses were only chemical, but in the 20,000 urinary stones I analyzed crystallographically, I think only 3 were actually calcite. The rest of the carbonate was in the apatite structure, enough that sometimes, an apatite kidney stone would effervesce (slightly, not really even as much as unpowdered dolomite might).