Pruss, SB, Jones, DS, Fike, DA et al. (2 more authors) (2019) Marine anoxia and sedimentary mercury enrichments during the Late Cambrian SPICE event in northern Scotland. Geology, 47 (5). pp. 475-478. ISSN 1943-2682
Abstract
Elevated mercury concentrations in ancient sedimentary rocks are used as a fingerprint for large igneous province (LIP) volcanism because there is a tight association between known LIPs and coeval sedimentary Hg anomalies. While nonvolcanic processes of sedimentary Hg enrichment, including redox variations, have been demonstrated in modern settings, interpretations of ancient sedimentary Hg records have focused on LIP volcanism. Here, we document a link between sedimentary Hg enrichment and marine redox changes during the late Cambrian Steptoean positive isotopic carbon excursion (SPICE) event, a time with no known LIP. We report a new occurrence of the SPICE event from the Eilean Dubh Formation of northern Scotland, which preserves a series of coeval Hg enrichments. Abundant glauconite, a redox-sensitive iron-bearing mineral, co-occurs stratigraphically with the SPICE and Hg enrichments but is rare to absent from the rest of the section, and bioturbation is low in strata spanning the SPICE. We suggest that local Hg enrichments were driven by changing marine redox conditions during the SPICE event, rather than emplacement of a LIP. Redox oscillations should be considered as an additional control on Hg enrichments in the geologic record.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 Geological Society of America. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Geology. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Institute for Applied Geosciences (IAG) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 May 2019 12:49 |
Last Modified: | 21 Mar 2020 01:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Geological Society of America |
Identification Number: | 10.1130/G45871.1 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:146235 |