This work presents new apatite fission track LA–ICP–MS (Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) data from Mid–Late Paleozoic rocks, which form the substratum of the Swiss Jura mountains (the Tabular Jura and the Jura fold-and-thrust belt) and the northern margin of the Swiss Molasse Basin. Samples were collected from cores of deep boreholes drilled in North Switzerland in the 1980s, which reached the crystalline basement. Our thermochronological data show that the region experienced a multi-cycle history of heating and cooling that we ascribe to burial and exhumation, respectively. Sedimentation in the Swiss Jura Mountains occurred continuously from Early Triassic to Early Cretaceous, leading to the deposition of maximum 2 km of sediments. Subsequently, less than 1 km of Lower Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic sediments were slowly eroded during the Late Cretaceous, plausibly as a consequence of the northward migration of the forebulge of the neo-forming North Alpine Foreland Basin. Following this event, the whole region remained relatively stable throughout the Paleogene. Our data show that the Tabular Jura region resumed exhumation at low rates in early–middle Miocene times (≈20–15 Ma), whereas exhumation in the Jura fold-and-thrust belt probably re-started later, in the late Miocene (≈10–5 Ma). Erosional exhumation likely continues to the present day. Despite sampling limitations, our thermochronological data record discrete periods of slow cooling (rates of about 1°C/My), which might preclude models of elevated cooling (due to intense erosion) in the Jura Mountains during the Miocene. The denudation (≈1 km) of the Tabular Jura region and the Jura fold-and-thrust belt (≈500 m) has provided sediments to the Swiss Molasse Basin since at least 20 Ma. The southward migration of deformation in the Jura mountains suggests that the molasse basin started to uplift and exhume only after 5 Ma, as suggested also by previous authors. The data presented here show that the deformation of the whole region is occurring in an out-of-sequence trend, which is more likely associated with the reactivation of thrust faults beneath the foreland basin. This deformation trend suggests that tectonics is the most determinant factor controlling denudation and exhumation of the region, whereas the recently proposed “climate-induced exhumation” mechanism might play a secondary role.
Understanding low temperature carbon sequestration through serpentinite–H2O–CO2 interaction is becoming increasingly important as it is considered a potential approach for carbon storage required to offset anthropogenic CO2 emissions. In this study, we present new insights into spontaneous CO2 mineral sequestration through the formation of hydromagnesite + kerolite with minor aragonite incrustations on serpentinite walls of the Montecastelli copper mine located in Southern Tuscany, Italy. On the basis of field, petrological, and geochemical observations coupled with geochemical modeling, we show that precipitation of the wall coating paragenesis is driven by a sequential evaporation and condensation process starting from meteoric waters which emerge from fractures into the mine walls and ceiling. A direct precipitation of the coating paragenesis is not compatible with the chemical composition of the mine water. Instead, geochemical modeling shows that its formation can be explained through evaporation of mine water and its progressive condensation onto the mine walls, where a layer of serpentinite powder was accumulated during the excavation of the mine adits. Condensed water produces a homogeneous film on the mine walls where it can interact with the serpentinite powder and become enriched in Mg, Si, and minor Ca, which are necessary for the precipitation of the observed coating paragenesis. The evaporation and condensation processes are driven by changes in the air flow inside the mine, which in turns are driven by seasonal changes of the outside temperature. The presence of “kerolite”, a Mg-silicate, is indicative of the dissolution of Si-rich minerals, such as serpentine, through the water–powder interaction on the mine walls at low temperature (~17.0 to 18.1 °C). The spontaneous carbonation of serpentine at low temperature is a peculiar feature of this occurrence, which has only rarely been observed in ultramafic outcrops exposed on the Earth’s surface, where instead hydromagnesite predominantly forms through the dissolution of brucite. The high reactivity of serpentine observed, in this study, is most likely due to the presence of fine-grained serpentine fines in the mine walls. Further study of the peculiar conditions of underground environments hosted in Mg-rich lithologies, such as that of the Montecastelli Copper mine, can lead to a better understanding of the physical and chemical conditions necessary to enhance serpentine carbonation at ambient temperature.
Here we report high-latitude stable isotope compositions of Maastrichtian fossil fish and marine reptiles (mainly mosasaurs) from Antarctica (64°S paleolatitude) and compare them with mid-paleolatitude samples from Argentine Patagonia (45°S). Disparities between the δ13C values of bony fish and marine reptiles correspond to differences in the foraging ground (distance from the shore and depth), while dramatically higher δ13C values (by 18‰) in shark enameloid cannot be explained through ecology and are here imputed to biomineralization. Comparison with extant vertebrates suggests that the diet alone can explain the offset observed between bony fish and mosasaurs; however, breath holding due to a diving behavior in mosasaurs may have had some impact on their δ13C values, as previously suggested. The δ18OPO4 values of the remains confirm a relatively stable, elevated body temperature for marine reptiles, meaning that they were thermoregulators. We calculated a water temperature of ~8°C for Antarctica from the fish δ18OPO4 values, warmer than present-day temperatures and consistent with the absence of polar ice sheets during the latest Maastrichtian. Our fish data greatly extend the latitudinal range of Late Cretaceous fish δ18OPO4 values and result in a thermal gradient of 0.4°C/1° of latitude when combined with literature data.
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