A global carbon isotope excursion (SPICE) during the Late Cambrian: relation to trilobite extinctions, organic-matter burial and sea level

The Steptoean positive carbon isotope excursion (SPICE) marks a global oceanographic event that confirms intercontinental correlations between different biogeographic realms based on agnostids and other blue-water trilobites. The SPICE excursion is documented from sections in Laurentia, Kazakhstan, China, and Australia where it begins with the mass extinction at the base of the Pterocephaliid Biomere (Steptoean Stage) in Laurentia and at coeval extinction horizons in Gondwana and periGondwana terranes. The peak of SPICE (+ 5%0) coincided with a time of maximum regression in Laurentia. SPICE is similar in this regard to excursions that coincide with glacio-eustatic falls, such as in the Late Ordovician. A plausible scenario involves the transformation of ocean circulation between two states, which led to enhanced coastal upwelling and benthic extinctions. The lack of evidence for glaciation indicates that the coeval sea level fall (Sauk II-Sauk III event) resulted from tectonic or hydrologic changes that remain poorly understood at this time. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V

Fluid flow through the sedimentary cover in northern Switzerland recorded by calcite-celestite veins (Oftringen borehole, Olten)

Abundant veins filled by calcite, celestite and pyrite were found in the core of a 719 m deep borehole drilled in Oftringen near Olten, located in the north-western Molasse basin, close to the thrust of the Folded Jura. Host rocks are calcareous marl, argillaceous limestone and limestone of the Dogger and Malm. The delta O-18 values of vein calcite are lower than in host rock carbonate and, together with microthermometric data from fluid inclusions in vein calcite, indicate precipitation from a seawater-dominated fluid at average temperatures of 56-68A degrees C. Such temperatures were reached at the time of maximum burial of the sedimentary pile in the late Miocene. The depth profile of delta C-13 and Sr-87/Sr-86 values and Sr content of both whole-rock carbonate and vein calcite show marked trends towards negative delta C-13, high Sr-87/Sr-86, and low Sr content in the uppermost 50-150 m of the Jurassic profile (upper Oxfordian). The Sr-87/Sr-86 of vein minerals is generally higher than that of host rock carbonate, up to very high values corresponding to Burdigalian seawater (Upper Marine Molasse, Miocene), which represents the last marine incursion in the region. No evidence for internally derived radiogenic Sr (clay minerals) has been found and so an external source is required. S and O isotope composition of vein celestite and pyrite can be explained by bacterial reduction of Miocene seawater sulphate. The available data set suggests the vein mineralization precipitated from descending Burdigalian seawater and not from a fluid originating in the underlying Triassic evaporites