Compaction and Diagenesis

Abstract

This chapter follows logically that dealing with the origins of clay in the sedimentation environment. Sedimentation followed by more sedimentation leads to diagenesis, burial diagenesis which is the most important diagenesis for silicates. What is the nature of the change in state which brings about new minerals upon their burial? As sediments accumulate in a basin (the basic concept of a sedimentary basin being a recipient that has a bottom which continues to grow deeper with time, a sort of un-filling cup; otherwise the recipient would fill up and the story would end) they are subjected to two major changes in their environment. First as burial proceeds, sediment temperature increases. As any miner knows, deep mines are hotter than shallow ones, and in fact the Earth is hotter inside than at its skin (i.e. the solid gas interface known as the Earth’s surface). So as sediments get buried in basins, or on the edges in continents, they get hotter.