The isotopic composition of strontium and sulfur in seawater of Late Permian (Zechstein) age

The Paleozoic minima of ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and δ³⁴S values in seawater are observed in anhydrite layers of the Stassfurt (A-2) and Aller (A-4) cycles of evaporation of Late Permian age in Germany. These minima were probably caused by extremely low rates of continental runoff and bacterial sulfate reduction. Thereafter conditions changed suddenly, with a steeply increasing supply of radiogenic Sr and of nutrients into seawater. The latter induced a large growth in the production of organic material, in bacterial activity in sediments, and in the flow of isotopically heavy sulfur back into the oceans. This large change in the cycles of S and Sr (as well as of C and O) within the relatively short Zechstein period (2–5 Ma) reflects a considerable modification of the plate tectonic and environmental conditions shortly before the beginning of the Mesozoic era. The Ochoan deposition in the USA is probably of the same age as the Stassfurt-Leine evaporation in W Europe.