The Neoproterozoic Quruqtagh Group in eastern Chinese Tianshan: evidence for a post-Marinoan glaciation
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Diamictite
Dolostone
Snowball Earth
Siliciclastic
Chemostratigraphy
Abstract Two separate and distinct diamictite‐rich units occur in the mixed carbonate‐siliciclastic Polarisbreen Group, which comprises the top kilometer of >7 km of Neoproterozoic strata in the northeast of the Svalbard archipelago. The platformal succession accumulated on the windward, tropical to subtropical margin of Laurentia. The older Petrovbreen Member is a thin glacimarine diamictite that lacks a cap carbonate. It contains locally derived clasts and overlies a regional karstic disconformity that was directly preceded by a large (>10‰) negative δ 13 C anomaly in the underlying shallow‐marine carbonates. This anomaly is homologous to anomalies in Australia, Canada and Namibia that precede the Marinoan glaciation. The younger and thicker Wilsonbreen Formation comprises terrestrial ice‐contact deposits. It contains abundant extrabasinal clasts and is draped by a transgressive cap dolostone 3–18 m thick. The cap dolostone is replete with sedimentary features strongly associated with post‐Marinoan caps globally, and its isotopic profile is virtually identical to that of other Marinoan cap dolostones. From the inter‐regional perspective, the two diamictite‐rich units in the Polarisbreen Group should represent the first and final phases of the Marinoan glaciation. Above the Petrovbreen diamictite are ∼200 m of finely laminated, dark olive‐coloured rhythmites (MacDonaldryggen Member) interpreted here to represent suspension deposits beneath shorefast, multi‐annual sea ice (sikussak). Above the suspension deposits and below the Wilsonbreen diamictites is a <30‐m‐thick regressive sequence (Slangen Member) composed of dolomite grainstone and evaporitic supratidal microbialaminite. We interpret this sabkha‐like lagoonal sequence as an oasis deposit that precipitated when local marine ice melted away under greenhouse forcing, but while the tropical ocean remained covered due to inflow of sea glaciers from higher latitudes. It appears that the Polarisbreen Group presents an unusually complete record of the Marinoan snowball glaciation.
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Isotopic chemostratigraphy has proven successful in the correlation of carbonate-rich Neoproterozoic successions. In successions dominated by siliciclastic rocks, chemostratigraphy can be problematic, but if thin carbonates punctuate siliciclastic strata, useful isotopic data may be obtained. The upper Pocatello Formation and lower Brigham Group of southeastern Idaho provide an opportunity to assess the potential and limitations of isotopic chemostratigraphy in overwhelmingly siliciclastic successions. The 5000 m thick succession consists predominantly of siliciclastic lithologies, with only three intervals that contain thin intercalated carbonates. Its depositional age is only broadly constrained by existing biostratigraphic, sequence stratigraphic and geochronometric data. The lowermost carbonates include a cap dolomite atop diamictites and volcanic rocks of the Pocatello Formation. The delta 13C values of these carbonates are distintly negative (-5 to -3), similar to carbonates that overlie Neoproterozoic glaciogenic rocks worldwide. Stratigraphically higher carbonates record a major positive delta 13C excursion to values as high as +8.8 within the carbonate member of the Caddy Canyon Quartzite. The magnitude of this excusion is consistent with post-Sturtian secular variation recorded elsewhere in the North American Cordillera, Australia, Svalbard, Brazil and Nambia, and exceeds the magnitude of any post-Varanger delta 13C excursion documented to date. In most samples, Sr-isotopic abundances have been altered by diagenesis and greenschist facies metamorphism, but a least-altered value of approximately 0.7076 supports a post-Sturtian and pre-Marinoan/Varanger age for upper Pocatello and lower Brigham rocks that lie above the Pocatello diamictite. Thus, even though available chemostratigraphic data are limited, they corroborate correlations of Pocatello Formation diamictites and overlying units with Sturtian glaciogenic rocks and immediately post-Sturtian successions in western North America and elsewhere.
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The termination of the Marinoan Snowball Earth glaciation constitutes a dramatic interval of climate change. This field study seeks to investigate this climate transition by characterizing the basal-Ediacaran cap carbonate succession of the Tsabisis Formation overlying the Blässkranz Formation glacial deposits exposed in the Naukluft Mountains of Namibia by using sedimentologic and stratigraphic field observations supplemented by chemostratigraphic analyses. Measured sections and lateral bed/unit tracing delineate stratigraphic stacking patterns and regional facies changes. In downdip areas Marinoan diamictite transitions upward into dolostone intermixed with sandstone and extrabasinal clasts that is gradually overlain by fine grained laminated dolostone. Updip localities show the diamictite is overlain by intercalated sandstones, gravels, and shales before an abrupt change to laminated dolostone of the cap carbonate. A succession of stromatolites, which become strongly elongate upward, prograde into the laminated dolostone in the updip localities. The stromatolites are overlain by laminated dolostone that grades upward into rhythmite with intercalations of shale. Near the top of the cap, rhythmites may be reworked into tabular intraclast conglomerate, locally intercalated with hummocky cross stratified sandstone, which passes upward into the shale and limestone members of the Tsabisis Formation. The Tsabisis Formation is overlain by the Noab Formation, dominated by sedimentary breccia, laminated dolostone, and sandstone. The lateral and vertical distribution of facies indicate a retreat of the shoreline and glacially sourced siliciclastics near the base of the cap carbonate, a shallowing succession to fair-weather wave base at the top of the stromatolite facies, and a second shallowing succession to storm wave base near the top of the cap carbonate. Maximum flooding occurred soon after the initiation of carbonate deposition and two sequence boundaries mark higher stratigraphic levels within the cap carbonate. The depositional patterns of the Tsabisis Formation cap carbonate resemble that of other Precambrian mixed carbonate-siliciclastic platforms and shows multiple base-level fluctuations that could be attributed to a range of mechanisms. Some of the base-level changes may have been directly coupled to events driven by deglaciation but distinguishing these from conventional controls on accommodation space in the rock record is challenging and multiple depositional models are feasible.
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The Neoproterozoic Glaciation (known as “Snowball Earth”) is one of the remarkable events in Earth history. In this paper, the late Neoproterozoic tillites at Lantian, Xiuning, South Anhui have been studied in detail by means of stratigraphy and chemostratigraphy. Lithologically, the Leigongwu Formation can be divided into 3 units: the upper diamictite, the middle dolomite and black shales and the lower diamictite. Comparison of C-isotope results of the cap dolomites, which are about -5‰ (PDB), with δ 13C profiles of contemporaneous carbonates around the world suggests that the two tillites of the Leigongwu Formation may represent two glaciations and correspond to the Sturtian (710—730Ma) and Marinoan (590—600Ma) tillites, respectively.
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