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PANGAEA.
Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science
Abstract:
Some of the carbon removed from Earth's surface is stored within authigenic carbonate in marine sediments. Methane seeps are crucial sites of global marine carbon cycling sustaining microbial activity, enabling carbonate formation and the transfer of methane-derived carbon to the geosphere. Carbon sequestration rates depend on carbonate precipitation rate, which can be accelerated by mat-forming microorganisms that are ubiquitous at methane seeps and other Earth surface environments today. We investigate a 5-m-long drill core from an active methane seep at 1500 m water depth in the South China Sea with an exceptional abundance of pink and clear aragonite cement derived from the sulphate-driven anaerobic oxidation of methane, yet both cements precipitated under different conditions. Phase-specific 230Th/U-based ages, lipid biomarker compositions, and calcium isotope data suggest that pink aragonite is a product of in situ biofilm mineralization. First estimated precipitation rates of these individual cements in the seep carbonates range from 0.04 cm/ka for clear aragonite to 1.0 cm/ka for pink aragonite, suggesting an up to 25-fold increase in precipitation rates associated with biofilm mineralization. These results provide first kinetic constraints for future quantitative carbon cycle models, emphasizing the role of biofilms in accelerating carbon sequestration in marine authigenic carbonates.
Keyword(s):
Authigenic Carbonate; Calcium isotopes; Cold seeps; U/Th dating
References:
Brazier, Jean-Michel; Schmitt, Anne-Désirée; Gangloff, Sophie; Pelt, Eric; Chabaux, François; Tertre, Emmanuel (2019): Calcium isotopic fractionation during adsorption onto and desorption from soil phyllosilicates (kaolinite, montmorillonite and muscovite). Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 250, 324-347, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.02.017
Kerber, Inga Kristina; Arps, Jennifer; Eichstädter, Rene; Kontor, Fabian; Dornick, Christoph; Schröder-Ritzrau, Andrea; Babu, Athulya; Warken, Sophie F; Frank, Norbert (2023): Simultaneous U and Th isotope measurements for U-series dating using MCICPMS. Nuclear Instruments & Methods in Physics Research Section B-Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 539, 169-178, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2023.04.003
Schmitt, Anne-Désirée; Cobert, Florian; Bourgeade, Pascale; Ertlen, Damien; Labolle, François; Gangloff, Sophie; Badot, Pierre-Marie; Chabaux, François; Stille, Peter (2013): Calcium isotope fractionation during plant growth under a limited nutrient supply. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 110, 70-83, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2013.02.002
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Tseng, Yiting; Smrzka, Daniel; Lin, Saulwood; Schröder-Ritzrau, Andrea; Frank, Norbert; Bohrmann, Gerhard (2023): Authigenic Carbonate Precipitation at Yam Seep Controlled by Continuous Fracturing and Uplifting of Four‐Way Closure Ridge Offshore SW Taiwan. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 24(7), e2022GC010652, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GC010652
Wefing, Anne-Marie; Arps, Jennifer; Blaser, Patrick; Wienberg, Claudia; Hebbeln, Dierk; Frank, Norbert (2017): High precision U-series dating of scleractinian cold-water corals using an automated chromatographic U and Th extraction. Chemical Geology, 475, 140-148, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2017.10.036
Funding:
Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), grant/award no. 03G0288A: TaiDrill – SO266
Coverage:
Latitude: 22.058117 * Longitude: 119.799650
Date/Time Start: 2018-11-03T04:09:00 * Date/Time End: 2018-11-03T04:09:00
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0) (License comes into effect after moratorium ends)
Size:
4 datasets

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