Elsevier

Precambrian Research

Volume 337, February 2020, 105549
Precambrian Research

Dynamic carbon and sulfur cycling in the aftermath of the Lomagundi-Jatuli Event: Evidence from the Paleoproterozoic Hutuo Supergroup, North China Craton

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2019.105549Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Chemostratigraphy of stable C and S isotopes in the Late Paleoproterozoic Huaiyincun dolostone is correlated with detailed petrographic and mineralogical analyses.

  • Synchronous declines in δ13Ccarb and δ34SCAS values indicate enhanced oxidation of continental pyrite and organic matter, correlatable with the Shunga-Francevillian Event.

  • Decreased δ34SCAS values along with increased CAS concentrations suggest that the seawater sulfate reservoir recovered from low levels after the Lomagundi-Jatuli Event.

Abstract

The unprecedented positive δ13C excursion in carbonates deposited between 2.2 and 2.0 Ga, known as the Lomagundi-Jatuli Event (LJE), has been documented globally and linked to the rise of atmospheric oxygen. Increasing oxidation inevitably changed the atmosphere-hydrosphere system, but few chemostratigraphic or quantitative constraints for the aftermath of this event exists. Here, we describe a ~200 m-thick carbonate succession in the Huaiyincun Formation, Hutuo Supergroup, ~2.0–1.9 Ga, from the North China Craton. There is a lithological transition from pink-purple dolostones to grey dolostones at ca. 91.6 m above the base of the Huaiyincun Formation. The former are more enriched in hematite and detrital minerals, whereas the latter contain more organic matter but almost no detrital phases. Meanwhile, the frequent occurrence of tempesite structures, along with the abrupt decline of stromatolites in the upper Huaiyincun Formation, suggest a storm-dominated environment. These distinct features within the Huaiyincun Formation reveal increased water depth during a transgression event. Two types of Raman spectra of organic matter were found in the lower and upper Huaiyincun Formation, respectively, which is proposed to be the result of variable oxidation.

At 65.6 m, 26 m below the lithological transition (~91.6 m), remarkable decreases in both δ13Ccarb and δ34SCAS are observed. This discordance between C-S isotopic excursions and sedimentological and mineralogical variations argues against a seawater depth gradient effect of the δ13Ccarb and δ34SCAS curves. Instead, the decline of δ13Ccarb rather correlates with the negative δ13Ccarb excursions in ca. 2.0 Ga carbonates from Gabon and Russia, known as the Shunga-Francevillian Event (SFE). The result of the quantitatively constrained paleo-seawater [SO42−]sw suggests a crash of the seawater sulfate reservoir compared with that during the preceding LJE. However, the decreased δ34SCAS and increased CAS concentration towards the top of the study unit represent the recovery of seawater sulfate reservoir. The coordinated decline in δ34SCAS and δ13Ccarb values is likely related to enhanced oxidation of continental pyrite and organic matter in the aftermath of the LJE. The Huaiyincun Formation therefore represents a critical interval that recorded dynamic carbon and sulfur cycles after the LJE.

Introduction

Carbonates with anomalously high δ13C values were first discovered in the Paleoproterozoic successions of the Lomagundi Group in Zimbabwe and the Jatuli Group in Fennoscandia (Galimov et al., 1968, Schidlowski et al., 1975). Since then, similarly high values (>5‰) of δ13C have been reported from carbonates in coeval successions world wide (Bekker et al., 2006, Lindsay and Brasier, 2002, Melezhik and Fallick, 2010, Préat et al., 2011). These unprecedented perturbations in carbon isotope composition were thereby recognized as a worldwide event termed as the Lomagundi-Jatuli event (Schidlowski et al., 1976, Melezhik et al., 2005), ended by the return of δ13C values to near 0‰ after 2060 Ma (Karhu and Holland, 1996, Martin et al., 2013a). The termination and aftermath of these unprecedented perturbations in the carbon cycle was represented by dramatic changes of δ13C from positive to negative values in the 2090–1980 Ma Zaonega Formation in the Onega paleo-basin and the 2083–2050 Ma Francevillian Series of Gabon (Kump et al., 2011, Melezhik et al., 2015, Ossa Ossa et al., 2018). This was recognized as the Shunga-Francevillian Event (SFE), likely the result of massive oxidation of organic matter (OM) (Kump et al., 2011). While the global nature of this negative carbon isotope excursion remains to be confirmed, little effort has been paid to decipher their local responses in various sedimentary environments. Therefore, a combination of multiple geochemical proxies with solid petrographic context is needed for a thorough understanding of the dynamic biogeochemical cycles in the post-LJE oceans.

Oceanic sulfate plays a key role in biogeochemical C cycle through bacterial sulfate reduction (Berner, 1989). Sulfur isotopes in sedimentary rocks have been widely used to explore the oxidative weathering, to quantify the seawater sulfate levels ([SO42−]sw) and to constrain paleoredox states of the oceans (Algeo et al., 2015, Canfield and Teske, 1996, Guo et al., 2015, Luo et al., 2015, Luo et al., 2016, Papineau et al., 2007, Shi et al., 2018). A number of attempts have been made to reconstruct Paleoproterozoic seawater sulfate concentrations and their connections with the redox state of the atmosphere and hydrosphere (Bottrell and Newton, 2006; Habicht, 2002; Luo et al., 2015, Luo et al., 2010, Planavsky et al., 2012, Scott et al., 2014). Growing evidence shows that [SO42−]sw during the LJE has greatly increased and probably reached a maximum value of 10 mM at the falling limb of the LJE (Blättler et al., 2018), as a result of the massive oxidative weathering of continental sulfides (Konhauser et al., 2011, Planavsky et al., 2012). In stark contrast to the remarkable expansion of sulfate reservoir during the LJE, [SO42−]sw in the late Paleoproterozoic and early Mesoproterozoic is estimated to be lower than 2.5 mM (Kah et al., 2004) or even much lower than 1 mM (Luo et al., 2015, Fakhraee et al., 2019). Pyrite multiple-sulfur isotopic data support a rapid expansion of the seawater sulfate reservoir (SSR) during the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) at ca. 2.3 Ga followed by a subsequent contraction of the SSR at ca. 2.05 Ga (Scott et al., 2014). Details of the transition from expansion to contraction, however, remain obscure and require detailed investigations of coeval successions elsewhere.

Shifts of δ13Ccarb value from +3.4‰ to <−3‰ have been documented in the carbonates of the 2.14–1.83 Ga Hutuo Supergroup in the North China Craton (Zhong and Ma, 1997; Kong et al., 2011, She et al., 2016), similar to those on other continents (Kump et al., 2011, Melezhik et al., 2015, Ossa Ossa et al., 2018). It has been interpreted as the result of a deglaciation event (Kong et al., 2011), or corresponding to the onset of the SFE (She et al., 2016). Here we present high-resolution stratigraphic carbon and sulfur isotope data, combined with detailed sedimentology and petrography of Paleoproterozoic carbonates from the Huaiyincun Formation, Hutuo Supergroup in the North China Craton. The coupled δ13Ccarb, δ13Corg and δ34SCAS data of the Huaiyincun Formation shed new light on the critical period between the LJE and the SFE.

Section snippets

Geological setting

The North China Craton is one of the oldest cratonic blocks in the world that can be divided into the Eastern and Western blocks, separated by the Trans-North China Orogen (Fig. 1a) (Zhao et al., 2001). Paleoproterozoic volcano-sedimentary successions are widespread in the North China Craton (Kusky and Li, 2003), the most representative of which being the Hutuo Supergroup. The Hutuo Supergroup is part of the Trans North China Orogen and is located in the Wutai area, Shanxi Province (Fig. 1a).

Sedimentary features

The Huaiyincun Formation is well exposed at the Huaiyincun East section (GPS coordinates 38°39′22.09″N, 113° 7′31.82″E), ca. 1.5 km northwest of Dongye Town (Fig. 1a). It conformably overlies the Daguandong Formation (Fig. 2a-b) and starts with dolostone intercalated with purple metapelite (Fig. 2c). The Huaiyincun Formation is characterized by non-stromatolitic dolostone, with only a few beds of stromatolitic bioherm occurring at ca. 15 m above the base (Fig. 2d). At about 91.6 m above the

Samples and methods

Thirty-four dolostone samples were collected from the ca. 200 m interval of the Huaiyincun Formation in this study. All samples were selected from fresh outcrop to minimize the impact of weathering. Weathered surfaces and veins were cut off during sample preparation. For comparison, two samples of organic-rich metapelites from the Gaofan Group and a sample of banded iron formation (BIF) from the Wutai Group were also studied.

Thin sections were prepared using conventional methods, ground to

Mineralogy

Mineral assemblage of the carbonate rocks is characterized by dolomite + quartz + muscovite + feldspar throughout the Huaiyincun Formation, based on petrographic observations of 34 samples. The lower Huaiyincun Formation (below 91.6 m) has abundant hematite disseminations and sometimes hematite films coating carbonates or other minerals such as zircons (Fig. 4b, c, f). Large grains of detrital minerals such as feldspar, quartz, rutile and rounded apatite >20 μm in diameter are also found in the

A transgressional event recorded in the Huaiyincun Formation

Previous studies have suggested that the Huaiyincun Formation represented a period of maximum transgression in the Hutuo Supergroup (Bai, 1986). Our observations, however, document more details of the depositional environment for the Huaiyincun Formation. In contrast to the underlying Daguandong Formation, which consists of abundant stromatolites (Fig. 2e), only a few beds of stromatolites are found in the Huaiyincun Formation. The imbricated edgewise intraclasts in the lower Huaiyincun

Conclusions

Carbonates in the 2.0–1.9 Ga Huaiyincun Formation of the Hutuo Supergroup are well preserved and have only metamorphosed to the sub-greenschist facies. The lower Huaiyincun Formation, often containing imbricated edgewise intraclasts and showing hummocky cross-stratification, is characterized by pink-purple dolostones enriched in hematite and detrital minerals, while the upper Huaiyincun Formation is dominated by normally graded grey intraclastic dolostones with distinctly lower detrital

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge funding from National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant # 41272038, 41472170, 41825019 and 41821001), Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant# XDB26020102), and State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences (grant# GBL11801). We thank Zihu Zhang for his help on the CAS analysis and Fanyan Yang, Wei Liu, and Shuzhan Liu for their assistance in field work and sample preparation.

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