The Okoku line from Yokote and Kitakami via Kawashiri provides a section of the Tertiary beds of Miocene. The beds dominantly consist of lapillituff, tuff, tuffaceous sandstone, tuffaceous silt stone and lava. The powdered samples of these rocks were X-rayed for an identification of the constituent minerals. The results were summarized in Fig.2 in relation to the stratigraphy of each rock specimen. From the mineralogical characters, it is suggested that the Miocene formations are classified into the two mineral zones for alteration as described below. The upper mineral zone : Middle to late Miocene (Nishikurosawa, Onnagawa and Funakawa stage). Characteristic minerals are clinoptilolite, analcite, montmorillonite minerals, cristobalite and calcite associating with a minor amount of chlorite and mica mineral (may be illite). The lower mineral zone : Early Miocene (Nishioga and Daijima stage). Characteristic minerals are chlorite, sericite (or illite) and epidote. Although felspar and quartz occur in the both zones, they are considered to have the two origins, i.e. detrital and authigenic, from a microscopical observation. The boundary between the two zones can be drawn in the Kawashiri tuff member correlated to Nishikurosawa formation in the Oga Peninsula, Akita. In order to make the identification of clinoptilolite more precisely, differential thermal analyses and high temperature X-ray diffraction studies of the rock specimen containing clinoptilolite as a main constituent have been done. From the results ,zeolite under investigation has been confirmed to belong to a clinoptilolite species redefined by F. A. MUMPTON. The mineral zone for alteration in this area has been tentatively correlated to that of Miocene beds in other several areas in Japan. From the data mentioned above and obtained from the supplementary microscopical observation, it is considered that alteration of the Tertiary beds under investigation is that of regional scale- a kind of diagenesis or metamorphism including two different mineral zones of the upper and the lower. The upper zone is almost equivalent to heulandite-analcite assemblages of the zeolite facies presented by COOMBS, et al., and the lower zone may be corresponding to the lower part of the zeolite facies or the upper part of the green schist facies (the muscovite-chlorite subfacies).
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