The Ciechocinek Formation (Lower Jurassic) of SW Poland: petrology of green clastic rocks

The Lower Jurassic Ciechocinek Formation from the Czestochowa-Wielun region of SW Poland comprises greenish-grey muds and silts as well as poorly consolidated mudstones and siltstones with lenticular intercalations of fine-grained sands, sandstones and siderites. Analysis of a mineral composition  indicates that the detrital material was derived mainly from the weathering of metamorphic and sedimentary rocks of the eastern Sudetes with their foreland and of the Upper Silesia area, and that this material underwent repeated redeposition. The Fe-rich chlorites which give the green colour to the mudstones of the Ciechocinek Formation are most probably early diagenetic minerals, genetically linked with the deposition in a brackish sedimentary basin.