Stratigraphy and petrography of bedded barite in phosphatic Devonian slaven chert, Toquima Range, Nye County, central Nevada

Bedded barite in Slaven Chert in the Toquima Range, Nevada, is part of the Roberts Mountains Allochthon thrust eastward by the Late Devonian Antler Orogeny. High concentrations of organic matter (;Barite displays three morphologies: massive, nodular, and composite. Massive, fine-grained beds formed as a rapid primary precipitate above the sediment/water interface. Nodular barite is composed of barite nodules in matrix chert. Chert laminations are bent around barite nodules indicating the nodules grew prior to lithification of the chert and are an early diagenetic precipitate. Composite barite consists of barite nodules within fine-grained barite and lacks brown chert indicating the nodules formed as a synsedimentary precipitate within a previously deposited barite bed.