Supplemental Material: Clay minerals modulate early carbonate diagenesis

Biogeochemical model description and Python code, material characterization methods and results, and supplemental figures.<br>

Supplemental Material: Clay minerals modulate early carbonate diagenesis

Biogeochemical model description and Python code, material characterization methods and results, and supplemental figures.<br>

Stenopterygiids from the lower Toarcian of Beaujolais and a chemostratigraphic context for ichthyosaur preservation during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event

We report new ichthyosaur material excavated in lower Toarcian levels of the LafargeHolcim Val d'Azergues quarry in Beaujolais, SE France. A partially articulated skull and a smaller, unprepared but likely subcomplete skeleton preserved in a carbonate concretion are identified as stenopterygiids, a family of wide European distribution during the Early Jurassic. These specimens are among the finest preserved Toarcian exemplars known from Europe and in one of them, soft tissue preservation is suspected. Their state of preservation is attributed to the combination of prolonged anoxic conditions near the water-sediment interface and early carbonate cementation resulting from the activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria. We also present carbon and strontium isotope values obtained from the study site that allow detailed temporal comparisons with other Toarcian vertebrate-yielding sites and environmental perturbations associated with the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE). These comparisons suggest that the relatively high abundance and good preservation state of Toarcian vertebrates was favoured by a prolonged period of low bottom water oxygenation and accumulation rates. The environmental conditions that prevailed during the T-OAE were probably responsible for the extensive nature of Lagerstätte-type deposits with exceptional preservation of marine organisms. Whether the T-OAE had a biological impact on marine vertebrates requires a precise chemostratigraphic context of the fossil record spanning the Pliensbachian-Toarcian interval.Supplementary material at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5315223

The key factors controlling reservoir quality of the Middle CambrianDeimena Group sandstone in West Lithuania

Sandstones of the Middle Cambrian Deimena Group are commercially important as they make up the largest part of the hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir in 15 oil fields discovered in West Lithuania. However, the sandstones are characterised by a very complicated spatial distribution of reservoir quality. In order to better understand the distribution of reservoir properties and their controlling parameters, eighty-two sandstone samples from twenty-one boreholes were studied by means of thin section description, scanning electron microscopy, using backscattered and cathodoluminescence modes and clay fraction analyses. Generally, the sandstones are strongly cemented by quartz, resulting in almost total destruction of porosity but porous domains with preserved early stage quartz cement occur in a complex pattern. The close location of the early and late stage overgrowth types indicates that some sandstone parts were preserved from intense authigenic quartz precipitation. We believe that early carbonate cement was such an inhibitor. Detrital quartz grains in carbonate cemented domains are mostly free of authigenic quartz and as a rule show weakly compacted fabric as compared to the quartz cemented parts. Moreover, large secondary pores are located close to the carbonate cemented domains and indicate that some carbonate cement eventually dissolved. Apparently, the best reservoir properties within the generally strongly quartz cemented Deimena Groupsandstones are found in domains where dissolution of the early carbonate cement took place.