Diagenesis of marine and lacustrine organic matter during sinking and after sedimentation

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States)

OSTI ID:6000368

Meyers, P A ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences

The abundance and composition of organic matter in sediments is part of the geological record of aquatic conditions and biological communities of the present and the past. Sediment trap studies have shown that only a small fraction of the original amount of organic matter produced in the photic zone survives destruction and alteration during sinking to the bottoms of lakes and oceans, however. Susceptibility to degradation varies among the wide spectrum of molecular types comprising organic matter. Selective losses modify the character of the surviving small fraction of organic matter which becomes incorporated in bottom sediments. Drilled cores of marine and freshwater sediments have revealed that continued alterations occur to organic matter to sub-bottom depths of hundreds of meters, corresponding to millions of years. Despite the many potential modifications which could be imposed on bulk organic matter, source and paleoenvironmental information remains preserved in the molecular, elemental, and isotopic compositions of some of its components. Bulk C/N values and [delta]C-13 values, for example, appear to retain source signatures which, after some early diagenetic modifications.

• OSTI ID: 6000368
• Report Number(s): CONF-921058--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 24:7
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
580000* -- Geosciences
CARBON 13
CARBON ISOTOPES
DIAGENESIS
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
ISOTOPE RATIO
ISOTOPES
LAKES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MATTER
NUCLEI
ORGANIC MATTER
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
PALEONTOLOGY
SEAS
SEDIMENTATION
SEDIMENTS
STABLE ISOTOPES
SURFACE WATERS