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Authigenic carbonate precipitates from the NE Black Sea: a mineralogical, geochemical, and lipid biomarker study

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Abstract

Carbonate precipitates recovered from 2,000 m water depth at the Dolgovskoy Mound (Shatsky Ridge, north eastern Black Sea) were studied using mineralogical, geochemical and lipid biomarker analyses. The carbonates differ in shape from simple pavements to cavernous structures with thick microbial mats attached to their lower side and within cavities. Low δ13C values measured on carbonates (−41 to −32‰ V-PDB) and extracted lipid biomarkers indicate that anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) played a crucial role in precipitating these carbonates. The internal structure of the carbonates is dominated by finely laminated coccolith ooze and homogeneous clay layers, both cemented by micritic high-magnesium calcite (HMC), and pure, botryoidal, yellowish low-magnesium calcite (LMC) grown in direct contact to microbial mats. δ18O measurements suggest that the authigenic HMC precipitated in equilibrium with the Black Sea bottom water while the yellowish LMC rims have been growing in slightly 18O-depleted interstitial water. Although precipitated under significantly different environmental conditions, especially with respect to methane availability, all analysed carbonate samples show lipid patterns that are typical for ANME-1 dominated AOM consortia, in the case of the HMC samples with significant contributions of allochthonous components of marine and terrestrial origin, reflecting the hemipelagic nature of the primary sediment.

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Acknowledgments

We thank captain and crew of the R/V Professor Logachev for their excellent support while handling TV-grab and gravity coring during the TTR-15 cruise. We highly appreciate the help provided by many people, namely Christoph Vogt for doing the XRD measurements, Monika Segl for stable isotope measurements, Hella Buschhoff for CHN analyses and Hartmut Mai for running the SEM/EDX, Markus Elvert and Daniel Birgel for support during lipid biomarker analyses (all Univ. Bremen), Bettina Domeyer, Regina Surberg (IFM-GEOMAR) for retrieving and analysing pore water samples, Ellen Damm (AWI) for providing δ13C measurements on methane and Katja U. Heeschen (NOC, Southampton) for on-board gas sampling. δ18O measurements on interstitial water were performed by Manfred Schmitt (GCA, Sehnde), who is gratefully acknowledged. Janis Thal and Svenja Papenmeier (Univ. Bremen) provided very valuable support in the early stages of this research project. This paper has benefited from constructive reviews by Barbara Teichert and Giovanni Aloisi. This is contribution GEOTECH-286 of the R&D-programme GEOTECHNOLOGIEN funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG), collaborative project METRO (grant 03G0604A). RCOM 0526.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MARUM-Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften der Universität Bremen, PO Box 330440, Bremen, 28334, Germany

    A. Bahr, T. Pape & G. Bohrmann

  2. Physics of Geological Processes (PGP), University of Oslo, PO Box 1048, Blindern, Norway

    A. Mazzini

  3. IFM-GEOMAR, Wischhofstr. 1-3, Kiel, 24148, Germany

    M. Haeckel & A. Reitz

  4. UNESCO MSU Center for Marine Geology and Geophysics, Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University, Vorobjevy Gory, Moscow, 119899, Russia

    M. Ivanov

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  1. A. Bahr
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Correspondence to A. Bahr.

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Bahr, A., Pape, T., Bohrmann, G. et al. Authigenic carbonate precipitates from the NE Black Sea: a mineralogical, geochemical, and lipid biomarker study. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 98, 677–695 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-007-0264-1

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