Fracture dolomite as an archive of continental palaeo-environmental conditions

Andre Baldermann*, Florian Mittermayr, Stefano M. Bernasconi, Martin Dietzel, Cyrill Grengg, Dorothee Hippler, Tobias Kluge, Albrecht Leis, Ke Lin, Xianfeng Wang, Andrea Zünterl, Ronny Boch

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The origin of Quaternary dolomites in continental environments (e.g. karst and lakes) is barely constrained compared to marine dolomites in sedimentary records. Here we present a study of dolomite and aragonite formations infilling young fractures of the ‘Erzberg’ iron ore deposit, Austria, under continental-meteoric and low temperature conditions. Two dolomite generations formed shortly after the Last Glacial Maximum (~20 kyr BP): dolomite spheroids and matrix dolomite. Clumped isotope measurements and U/Th disequilibrium ages reveal formation temperatures of 0–3 °C (±6 °C) and 3–20 °C (±5 °C) for the both dolomite types, and depositional ages around 19.21 ± 0.10 kyr BP and 13.97 ± 0.08 kyr BP or younger, respectively. Meteoric solution and carbonate isotope compositions (δ18O, δ13C and 87Sr/86Sr) indicate the dolomites formed via aragonite and high-Mg calcite precursors from CO2-degassed, Mg-rich solutions. Our study introduces low temperature dolomite formations and their application as a sedimentary-chemical archive
Original languageEnglish
Article number35
JournalCommunications Earth & Environment
Volume1
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
  • Environmental Science(all)

Fields of Expertise

  • Advanced Materials Science

Cooperations

  • NAWI Graz

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