Transient marine euxinia at the end of the terminal Cryogenian glaciation

Xianguo Lang, Bing Shen (), Yongbo Peng (), Shuhai Xiao, Chuanming Zhou, Huiming Bao, Alan Jay Kaufman, Kangjun Huang, Peter W. Crockford, Yonggang Liu, Wenbo Tang and Haoran Ma
Additional contact information
Xianguo Lang: Peking University
Bing Shen: Peking University
Yongbo Peng: Louisiana State University
Shuhai Xiao: Virginia Tech
Chuanming Zhou: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Huiming Bao: Peking University
Alan Jay Kaufman: University of Maryland
Kangjun Huang: Northwest University
Peter W. Crockford: McGill University
Yonggang Liu: Peking University
Wenbo Tang: Arizona State University
Haoran Ma: Peking University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Termination of the terminal Cryogenian Marinoan snowball Earth glaciation (~650–635 Ma) is associated with the worldwide deposition of a cap carbonate. Modeling studies suggest that, during and immediately following deglaciation, the ocean may have experienced a rapid rise in pH and physical stratification followed by oceanic overturn. Testing these predictions requires the establishment of a high-resolution sequence of events within sedimentary records. Here we report the conspicuous occurrence of pyrite concretions in the topmost Nantuo Formation (South China) that was deposited in the Marinoan glacial deposits. Sedimentary facies and sulfur isotope data indicate pyrite precipitation in the sediments with H2S diffusing from the overlying sulfidic/euxinic seawater and Fe (II) from diamictite sediments. These observations suggest a transient but widespread presence of marine euxinia in an ocean characterized by redox stratification, high bioproductivity, and high-fluxes of sulfate from chemical weathering before the deposition of the cap carbonate.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05423-x Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-05423-x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05423-x

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().