Extreme 13C depletion of carbonates formed during oxidation of biogenic methane in fractured granite

Henrik Drake (), Mats E. Åström, Christine Heim, Curt Broman, Jan Åström, Martin Whitehouse, Magnus Ivarsson, Sandra Siljeström and Peter Sjövall
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Henrik Drake: Linnæus University
Mats E. Åström: Linnæus University
Christine Heim: Geoscience Centre Göttingen of the Georg-August University, Goldschmidtstrasse 3, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Curt Broman: Stockholm University
Jan Åström: CSC-IT Center for Science
Martin Whitehouse: Laboratory for Isotope Geology, Swedish Museum of Natural History
Magnus Ivarsson: Swedish Museum of Natural History
Sandra Siljeström: Chemistry and Materials, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden
Peter Sjövall: Chemistry and Materials, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract Precipitation of exceptionally 13C-depleted authigenic carbonate is a result of, and thus a tracer for, sulphate-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation, particularly in marine sediments. Although these carbonates typically are less depleted in 13C than in the source methane, because of incorporation of C also from other sources, they are far more depleted in 13C (δ13C as light as −69‰ V-PDB) than in carbonates formed where no methane is involved. Here we show that oxidation of biogenic methane in carbon-poor deep groundwater in fractured granitoid rocks has resulted in fracture-wall precipitation of the most extremely 13C-depleted carbonates ever reported, δ13C down to −125‰ V-PDB. A microbial consortium of sulphate reducers and methane oxidizers has been involved, as revealed by biomarker signatures in the carbonates and S-isotope compositions of co-genetic sulphide. Methane formed at shallow depths has been oxidized at several hundred metres depth at the transition to a deep-seated sulphate-rich saline water. This process is so far an unrecognized terrestrial sink of methane.

Date: 2015
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms8020

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