Palaeoproterozoic magnesite: lithological and isotopic evidence for playa/sabkha environments

Magnesite forms a series of 1- to 15-m-thick beds within the approximate to2.0 Ga (Palaeoproterozoic) Tulomozerskaya Formation, NW Fennoscandian Shield, Russia. Drillcore material together with natural exposures reveal that the 680-m-thick formation is composed of a stromatolite-dolomite-'red bed' sequence formed in a complex combination of shallow-marine and non-marine, evaporitic environments. Dolomite-collapse breccia, stromatolitic and micritic dolostones and sparry allochemical dolostones are the principal rocks hosting the magnesite beds. All dolomite lithologies are marked by delta C-13 values from +7.1 parts per thousand to +11.6 parts per thousand (V-PDB) and delta O-18 ranging from 17.4 parts per thousand to 26.3 parts per thousand (V-SMOW). Magnesite occurs in different forms: finely laminated micritic; stromatolitic magnesite; and structureless micritic, crystalline and coarsely crystalline magnesite. All varieties exhibit anomalously high delta C-13 values ranging from +9.0 parts per thousand to +11.6 parts per thousand and delta O-18 values of 20.0-25.7 parts per thousand. Laminated and structureless micritic magnesite forms as a secondary phase replacing dolomite during early diagenesis, and replaced dolomite before the major phase of burial. Crystalline and coarsely crystalline magnesite replacing micritic magnesite formed late in the diagenetic/metamorphic history. Magnesite apparently precipitated from sea water-derived brine, diluted by meteoric fluids. Magnesitization was accomplished under evaporitic conditions (sabkha to playa lake environment) proposed to be similar to the Coorong or Lake Walyungup coastal playa magnesite. Magnesite and host dolostones formed in evaporative and partly restricted environments; consequently, extremely high delta C-13 values reflect a combined contribution from both global and local carbon reservoirs. A C- 13-rich global carbon reservoir (delta C-13 at around +5 parts per thousand) is related to the perturbation of the carbon cycle at 2.0 Ga, whereas the local enhancement in C-13 (up to +12 parts per thousand) is associated with evaporative and restricted environments with high bioproductivity

The late holocene paleohydrology of Pine Lake, Alberta: a multiproxy investigation

This paper reports on a high-resolution, multi-proxy, late-Holocene study from a lake in the Aspen Parkland of southern Alberta, Canada. A sediment core spanning the last 4000+ yrs from Pine Lake was analyzed for charcoal, granulometry, grain roundness, tephra content, geochemistry, mineralogy and pollen. This multi-proxy record indicates: (1) increasing anoxia causing a shift in S deposition from gypsum to pyrite due to increasing moisture availability in the late Holocene; (2) a decrease in Mg flux into the lake due to the development of the aspen forest, which reduced water flow through the Mg-rich shallow sand aquifer; the aspen forest expansion was in turn induced by the extirpation of plains bison prior to settlement; and (3) a change in the upland fire regime from frequent low-biomass grass fires to less frequent but higher biomass under-story fires, also as a result of the expansion of the aspen forest. Not only are the different proxies sensitive to different rates and magnitudes of change, they also show different sensitivities to different types of hydrological change: the mineralogy and geochemistry are sensitive to changes in water level and redox potential, and to changes in the relative strengths of the aquifers feeding the lake, while the granulometry is sensitive to total hydrological balance. Thus, apparently contradictory proxy results should be viewed as complementary

Sedimentological characteristics and facies of the evaporite-bearing Kirmir Formation (Neogene), Beypazari Basin, central Anatolia, Turkey

A thick sedimentary sequence comprising fluvial, lacustrine and volcano-sedimentary rocks is present in the Neogene Beypazari Basin, central Anatolia. These units display considerable lateral facies variation and interfinger with alkaline volcanic rocks along the north-eastern margin of the basin. The uppermost Miocene Kirmir Formation contains numerous evaporite horizons. The evaporite sequence is up to 250 m thick and may be divided into four lithofacies. In ascending stratigraphical order these are: (1) gypsiferous claystone facies, (2) thenardite-glauberite facies, (3) laminar gypsum facies and (4) crystalline gypsum facies. These facies interfinger with one another laterally along a section from the margins to central parts of the basin. The lithological and sedimentological features of the Kirmir Formation indicate fluvial, saline playa mudflat, hypersaline ephemeral playa lake and very shallow subaqueous playa lake depositional environments, which probably were influenced by alternating semi-arid and evaporative conditions