首页 | 本学科首页   官方微博 | 高级检索  
     


Root‐related rhodochrosite and concretionary siderite formation in oxygen‐deficient conditions induced by a ground‐water table rise
Authors:Maciej J. Bojanowski  Elżbieta Jaroszewicz  Adrijan Košir  Maciej Łoziński  Leszek Marynowski  Anna Wysocka  Arkadiusz Derkowski
Affiliation:1. Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, 00‐818 Warszawa, Poland;2. Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw, 02‐089 Warszawa, Poland;3. Institute of Palaeontology, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia;4. School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK;5. Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, 41‐200 Sosnowiec, Poland;6. Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, 31‐002 Kraków, Poland
Abstract:Sedimentological, mineralogical, stable carbon and oxygen isotope determinations and biomarker analyses were performed on siderite concretions occurring in terrestrial silts to understand their formation and to characterize the sedimentary and diagenetic conditions favouring their growth. High δ13C values (6·4‰ on average) indicate that siderite precipitated in an anoxic environment where bacterial methanogenesis operated. The development of anoxic conditions during shallow burial was induced by a change in sedimentary environment from flood plain to swamp, related to a rise of the ground‐water table. Large amounts of decaying plant debris led to efficient oxygen consumption within the pore‐water in the peat. Oxygen depletion, in combination with a decrease in sedimentation rate, promoted anoxic diagenetic conditions under the swamp and favoured abundant siderite precipitation. This shows how a change in sedimentary conditions can have a profound impact on the early‐diagenetic environment and carbonate authigenesis. The concretions contain numerous rhizoliths; they are cemented with calcium‐rhodochrosite, a feature which has not been reported before. The rhodochrosite cement has negative δ13C values (?16·5‰ on average) and precipitated in suboxic conditions due to microbial degradation of roots coupled to manganese reduction. The exceptional preservation of the epidermis/exodermis and xylem vessels of former root tissues indicates that the rhodochrosite formed shortly after the death of a root in water‐logged sediments. Rhodochrosite precipitated during the initial stages of concretionary growth in suboxic microenvironments within roots, while siderite cementation occurred simultaneously around them in anoxic conditions. These suboxic microenvironments developed because oxygen was transported from the overlying oxygenated soil into sediments saturated with anoxic water via roots acting as permeable conduits. This model explains how separate generations of carbonate cements having different mineralogy and isotopic compositions, which would conventionally be regarded as cements precipitated sequentially in different diagenetic zones during gradual burial, can form simultaneously in shallow burial settings where strong redox gradients exist around vertically oriented permeable root structures.
Keywords:Biomarkers  methanogenesis  oxygen and carbon isotopes  peat swamp  rhodochrosite rhizoliths  siderite concretions
设为首页 | 免责声明 | 关于勤云 | 加入收藏

Copyright©北京勤云科技发展有限公司  京ICP备09084417号