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Title: Methane seep carbonates yield clumped isotope signatures out of equilibrium with formation temperatures

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12274· OSTI ID:1395567
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [8];  [3]
  1. California State Univ., Fullerton, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  2. Northern Arizona Univ., Flagstaff, AZ (United States)
  3. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States); Univ. de Brest, Plouzane (France)
  4. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
  5. Univ. of Bergen, Bergen (Norway)
  6. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)
  7. California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
  8. Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
  9. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)

Here, methane cold seep systems typically exhibit extensive buildups of authigenic carbonate minerals, resulting from local increases in alkalinity driven by methane oxidation. Here, we demonstrate that modern seep authigenic carbonates exhibit anomalously low clumped isotope values (Δ47), as much as ~0.2‰ lower than expected values. In modern seeps, this range of disequilibrium translates into apparent temperatures that are always warmer than ambient temperatures, by up to 50 °C. We examine various mechanisms that may induce disequilibrium behaviour in modern seep carbonates, and suggest that the observed values result from several factors including kinetic isotopic effects during methane oxidation, mixing of inorganic carbon pools, pH effects and rapid precipitation. Ancient seep carbonates studied here also exhibit potential disequilibrium signals. Ultimately, these findings indicate the predominance of disequilibrium clumped isotope behaviour in modern cold seep carbonates that must be considered when characterizing environmental conditions in both modern and ancient cold seep settings.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-13ER16402; SC0010288
OSTI ID:
1395567
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 7; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 54 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (8)

Foraminiferal δ18O reveals gas hydrate dissociation in Arctic and North Atlantic ocean sediments journal January 2020
A Kinetic Difference Between 12 C- and 13 C-Bound Oxygen Exchange Rates Results in Decoupled δ 18 O and Δ 47 Values of Equilibrating DIC Solutions journal August 2018
Gas Hydrate Dissociation During Sea‐Level Highstand Inferred From U/Th Dating of Seep Carbonate From the South China Sea journal December 2019
Carbonate formation in salt dome cap rocks by microbial anaerobic oxidation of methane journal February 2019
Oxygen isotope composition of the Phanerozoic ocean and a possible solution to the dolomite problem journal June 2018
Evidences for Paleo-Gas Hydrate Occurrence: What We Can Infer for the Miocene of the Northern Apennines (Italy) journal March 2019
Characterization of Carbonate Crust from a Recently Discovered Methane Seep on the North Atlantic Continental Margin of the USA journal February 2019
The DeepMIP contribution to PMIP4: methodologies for selection, compilation and analysis of latest Paleocene and early Eocene climate proxy data, incorporating version 0.1 of the DeepMIP database journal January 2019

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