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The onset of widespread marine red beds and the evolution of ferruginous oceans.

ABSTRACT: Banded iron formations were a prevalent feature of marine sedimentation ~3.8-1.8 billion years ago and they provide key evidence for ferruginous oceans. The disappearance of banded iron formations at ~1.8 billion years ago was traditionally taken as evidence for the demise of ferruginous oceans, but recent geochemical studies show that ferruginous conditions persisted throughout the later Precambrian, and were even a feature of Phanerozoic ocean anoxic events. Here, to reconcile these observations, we track the evolution of oceanic Fe-concentrations by considering the temporal record of banded iron formations and marine red beds. We find that marine red beds are a prominent feature of the sedimentary record since the middle Ediacaran (~580 million years ago). Geochemical analyses and thermodynamic modelling reveal that marine red beds formed when deep-ocean Fe-concentrations were > 4?nM. By contrast, banded iron formations formed when Fe-concentrations were much higher (> 50??M). Thus, the first widespread development of marine red beds constrains the timing of deep-ocean oxygenation.The evolution of oceanic redox state in the past is poorly known. Here, the authors present a temporal record of banded iron formations and marine red beds, which indicate deep-ocean oxygenation occurred in the middle Ediacaran, coinciding with the onset of widespread marine red beds.

SUBMITTER: Song H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5577183 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The onset of widespread marine red beds and the evolution of ferruginous oceans.

Song Haijun H Jiang Ganqing G Poulton Simon W SW Wignall Paul B PB Tong Jinnan J Song Huyue H An Zhihui Z Chu Daoliang D Tian Li L She Zhenbing Z Wang Chengshan C

Nature communications 20170830 1

Banded iron formations were a prevalent feature of marine sedimentation ~3.8-1.8 billion years ago and they provide key evidence for ferruginous oceans. The disappearance of banded iron formations at ~1.8 billion years ago was traditionally taken as evidence for the demise of ferruginous oceans, but recent geochemical studies show that ferruginous conditions persisted throughout the later Precambrian, and were even a feature of Phanerozoic ocean anoxic events. Here, to reconcile these observatio ...[more]

PMID: 28855507

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The onset of widespread marine red beds and the evolution of ferruginous oceans.

Publications

The onset of widespread marine red beds and the evolution of ferruginous oceans.

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