Life and Carbonate: Biotic and Abiotic Fingerprints in Past and Recent Carbonate Sediments

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 5691

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute of Geosciences, Universidade de Brasília, Brasilia 70910-900, Brazil
Interests: carbonate sedimentology; isotopes geochemistry; paleoceanography; paleoclimatology; stratigraphy

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Guest Editor
1. Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidade de São Paulo, Praça do Oceanográfico, 191, São Paulo, SP 05508-120, Brazil
2. IISS E. Ascione, Via Centuripe 11, 90135 Palermo, Italy
Interests: carbonate sedimentology; basin analysis; sedimentary basins; stratigraphy; biostratigraphy; sequence stratigraphy; tectonics; geological mapping

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Guest Editor
Space Exploration Institute, Fbg de l’Hopital 68, 2002 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Interests: geobiology; astrobiology

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Guest Editor
Instituto Oceanográfico, Universidade de São Paulo, Praça do Oceanográfico, 191, São Paulo 05508-120, SP, Brazil
Interests: magnetic methods; geophysical surveys; seismic methods; mineral exploration; rock physics
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Carbonate sediments yield important information for understanding the evolution of environments, climate, and life through geological times. Therefore, gaining a deeper understanding of carbonate deposits is essential for unravelling some of the most controversial issues in Earth’s history, such as which biogeochemical processes characterized the earliest forms of life, what favored the proliferation of complex organisms, and how the biosphere and the geosphere have interacted through time. On the other hand, the identification of original biological and environmental fingerprints in carbonate sediments is complicated by post-depositional processes and the limited availability of modern analogs for some ancient geological periods. Important advances in the study of carbonate systems can come from the integration of different approaches and techniques of various disciplines, such as sedimentology, paleontology, geochemistry, and geobiology, among others. The integration of these methodologies facilitates the cross-referencing of data that can be mutually confirmed, as well as the interpretation of various features of carbonate archives. We invite the submission of contributions that address carbonate sediments and sedimentary processes from various perspectives in recent and past environments.

Dr. Martino Giorgioni
Prof. Dr. Luca Basilone
Dr. Tomaso Bontognali
Prof. Dr. Luigi Jovane
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • carbonate mineralization
  • carbonate geochemistry
  • biogenic carbonate
  • microbial mineralization
  • carbonate environments
  • carbonate diagenesis
  • carbonate proxies

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 10871 KiB  
Article
The Development of Dolomite Within a Sequence Stratigraphic Framework: Cambrian Series 2 Changping Formation, Xiaweidian, China
by Shan Zhong, Zhaoqian Liu, Zhenkui Jin, Hongyu Tian, Madaki Agwom Istifanus and Simon C. George
Minerals 2024, 14(12), 1189; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14121189 - 22 Nov 2024
Viewed by 387
Abstract
The Lower Cambrian Changping Formation in the Western Hills of Beijing hosts tidal flat and lagoonal carbonates comprising dolomites, limestones, and dolomitic limestones, reflecting the processes of dolomite cementation and dolomitization within a sedimentary framework. Based on petrographic textures, two types of dolomites [...] Read more.
The Lower Cambrian Changping Formation in the Western Hills of Beijing hosts tidal flat and lagoonal carbonates comprising dolomites, limestones, and dolomitic limestones, reflecting the processes of dolomite cementation and dolomitization within a sedimentary framework. Based on petrographic textures, two types of dolomites were identified: microcrystalline dolomite and fine-mesocrystalline dolomite. Integrating petrological and geochemical data unveils two diagenetic stages. The initial dolomite formation, attributed to hypersaline fluids, occurred in a supratidal-sabkha setting during the early Cambrian. The dolomitization at the top of the Changping Formation, driven by evaporatively concentrated brines from the overlying Mantou Formation, altered peritidal carbonates. This study evaluates the original sedimentary environment and dolomitization within a sequence stratigraphic context, revealing a correlation between dolomitization episodes and the stratigraphic framework in the study area. Factors influencing this framework profoundly impact depositional environments and material composition, leading to micromorphological differences in dolomites. Sabkha dolomite formation, associated with evaporative pumping, predominates near the base of transgressive systems tracts. Seepage reflux dolomite, often linked with evaporative pumping dolomite, constitutes a vertical cycle in the sequence framework. The sequence from bottom to top is sabkha microcrystalline dolomite, limestone and dolomitic limestone, seepage reflux saccharoidal dolostone, and sabkha dolomite. Full article
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21 pages, 24393 KiB  
Article
Experimental vs. Natural Mineral Precipitation in Modern Microbialites: The Case Study of the Alkaline Bagno Dell’acqua Lake (Pantelleria Island, Italy)
by Michela Ingrassia, Aida Maria Conte, Cristina Perinelli, Luca Aldega, Letizia Di Bella, Cristina Mazzoni, Stefano Fazi, Francesco Giuseppe Falese, Tania Ruspandini, Agnese Piacentini, Benedetta Caraba, Andrea Bonfanti, Francesca Gori, Marino Domenico Barberio and Francesco Latino Chiocci
Minerals 2024, 14(10), 1013; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14101013 - 8 Oct 2024
Viewed by 887
Abstract
Microbial activity has been documented in various lacustrine environments, suggesting its fundamental role in mineral precipitation and, therefore, in the formation of organo-deposits such as microbialites. Many studies are currently focused on documenting how the association of microbes and extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) [...] Read more.
Microbial activity has been documented in various lacustrine environments, suggesting its fundamental role in mineral precipitation and, therefore, in the formation of organo-deposits such as microbialites. Many studies are currently focused on documenting how the association of microbes and extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs) may influence the authigenesis of Mg-rich clay minerals and the subsequent carbonate precipitation in growing microbialites in lacustrine environments. In this study, we investigate the present-day microbialites of the alkaline Bagno dell’Acqua lake (Pantelleria Island, Italy) using X-ray diffraction (XRD) scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Our results reveal the intimate association of Mg-smectite/carbonate minerals with the EPS and microbes, and, for the first time, we selected microbes belonging to phylum Firmicutes (Bacillus sp.), from natural microbialites, to carry out laboratory experiments that testify their direct role in the precipitation of clay and carbonate minerals. Full article
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27 pages, 39970 KiB  
Article
The Middle Miocene Microfacies, Cyclicity, and Depositional History: Implications on the Marmarica Formation at the Siwa Oasis, Western Desert (Egypt)
by Mohamed A. Khalifa, Amr S. Zaky, Luigi Jovane, Ahmed M. El-Hewy, Esam Zahran and Atef M. Kasem
Minerals 2024, 14(1), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/min14010073 - 8 Jan 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1512
Abstract
Microfacies studies were carried out on the Middle Miocene Marmarica Formation exposed at the Gabal Western Bahi El-Din and Gabal El-Najdeen, the Siwa Oasis, northwestern Desert (Egypt). It was distinguished into the lower, middle, and upper members. Eleven microfacies types were recognized, which [...] Read more.
Microfacies studies were carried out on the Middle Miocene Marmarica Formation exposed at the Gabal Western Bahi El-Din and Gabal El-Najdeen, the Siwa Oasis, northwestern Desert (Egypt). It was distinguished into the lower, middle, and upper members. Eleven microfacies types were recognized, which include skeletal lime-mudstone, dolomitic lime-mudstone, intraclastic wackestone, bryozoan wackestone, foraminiferal wackestone, foraminiferal bryozoan packstone, glauconitic molluscan packstone, molluscan intraclastic packstone, pelletal peloidal skeletal packstone, dolostones, and claystone microfacies. This formation includes several types of emergence- meter-scale cycles (shallowing-upward). Field observations and petrographic analyses revealed that these cycles consist of pure carbonates and mixed siliciclastic carbonates. These cycles consist of four types of gradual cycles and six types of non-gradual cycles. The gradual emergence cycles indicate a balance between the rate of subsidence, sea level oscillations, and sedimentation rate. The non-gradual cycles indicate an irregular balance between sedimentation rate and subsidence rate. The non-gradual cycles denote high-frequency sea level variation and/or short-term sea level oscillations, which are associated with high carbonate formation. The depositional environments of the Marmarica Formation are restricted to lagoonal at the base, followed upward to open marine conditions. Both environments most probably characterize the platform setting. Full article
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26 pages, 15897 KiB  
Article
Clumped Isotope Reordering and Kinetic Differences in Co-Hosted Calcite and Dolomite Minerals throughout Burial Diagenesis and Exhumation
by Qi Adlan, Stephen E. Kaczmarek and Cédric M. John
Minerals 2023, 13(12), 1466; https://doi.org/10.3390/min13121466 - 22 Nov 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1961
Abstract
The clumped isotope paleo-thermometer has become a valuable proxy for the burial history reconstruction of carbonate formations. To maximise the accuracy of these reconstructions, post-depositional alterations, such as recrystallisation and Δ47 isotope exchange reactions, must be understood. In this study, we examine [...] Read more.
The clumped isotope paleo-thermometer has become a valuable proxy for the burial history reconstruction of carbonate formations. To maximise the accuracy of these reconstructions, post-depositional alterations, such as recrystallisation and Δ47 isotope exchange reactions, must be understood. In this study, we examine the isotopic behaviour of calcites and early dolomite samples from the same stratigraphic intervals, and thus with similar burial history. This approach provides additional constraints on the kinetics of Δ47 reordering in dolomite during exhumation. Clumped isotope measurements were performed on 19 calcites and 15 early dolomites from the Permian, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods from four locations in Oman spanning different burial regimes. The calcite and dolomite samples were collected from the rock matrix, based on the assumption that fine material was more susceptible to recrystallisation. Our results show that calcites and dolomites record different Δ47 values despite being subjected to the same thermal history. The maximum Δ47 temperature recorded in dolomites (181 ± 13 °C) corresponds to the oldest and most deeply buried Permian rock. This value is approximately 35 °C higher than those measured in the co-located and coeval calcite matrix (145 ± 14 °C). This discrepancy suggests that calcite and dolomite have different kinetic parameters. Our data confirm (1) that dolomite Δ47 values are more resistant to alteration during burial and exhumation than Δ47 calcite values, and (2) that dolomite has a higher Δ47 closing temperature than calcite during cooling. The presence of two mineral phases with distinct kinetic parameters in the same stratigraphic unit provides additional constraints on models of burial and uplift. In addition, mineralogical data coupled with Δ47 and burial depths suggest that the progressive development of dolomite cation ordering is driven by temperature elevation, as previously suggested. Full article
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Planned Papers

The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.

1. Ana Valéria Alves Calmon Almeida et al. Diagenetic fingerprints in carbonate shells of Corumbella werneri (Tamengo Formation, Ediacaran)

2. Igor Carrasqueira, Luigi Jovane, Luca Lanci Evidence of magnetite reduction and primary magnetization destruction during early diagenesis in carbonaceous sediments from Maldives Inner Sea

3. Mateus Gama et al Morphologic and mineralogical characterization of carbonate platforms in Brazillian mixed shelf

4. Eduardo Marcon Carbonaceous reef deposits in Amapá Margin

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