Oxygen Isotopic and Petrographic Evidence Relevant to the Origin of the Arkansas Novaculite

O18 values for 73 chert samples from the Arkansas Novaculite (Devonian-Mississippian) range from + 17.8 to 33.7. Much of this variation is related to the effects of local metamorphism and isotopic impurities such as detrital quartz and clay minerals. Pure, unrecrystallized samples from the western outcrops in Oklahoma range from 30.3 to 33.7, whereas samples from Arkansas range from 25.1 to 29.7. As a group, west rn outcrops of the Novaculite are distinctly richer in O18. Petrographic and SEM examination of the O18-rich western samples reveal well preserved early diagenetic textures including abundant relict opal-CT lepispheres (now replaced by microquartz). Radiolaria and sponge spicules show well preserved morphologies. One western sample yielding the highest -value is microbrecciated, contains abundant dolomite rhombs and is laced with quartzine (length-slow chalcedony) suggesting silicification under evaporitic conditions. Samples from eastern localities display no evidence of early diagenetic textures, and radiolaria and sponge spicules are preserved only as petrographic ghosts. The isotopic and petrographic data can be interpreted in terms of a siliceous biogenic ooze deposited in environments ranging from supratidal to open marine. Shallow (platform?) deposition occurred in western areas with early silicification contributing to the preservation of diagenetic textures. Assuming that O18 of the diagenetic waters was within 1 of seawater the higher -values in the west reflect chert crystallization at isotopic temperatures of 20° to 29° C. The lower -values in the east suggest chert crystallization during deeper burial at isoto ic temperatures of 31° to 53° C, similar to burial diagenesis in Tertiary deep sea cherts.