Reconstruction of Water Temperature, pH, and Flux of Ancient Hot Springs from Travertine Depositional Facies

Abstract

An extensive data set of the physical and chemical attributes of two modern hot springs in the Mammoth Hot Springs complex of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, U.S.A., yields a strong correlation between travertine depositional facies and the temperature, pH, and flux of the hot-spring water from which the travertine precipitated. Because advection dominates in these hot-spring drainage systems, we quantify variability between and within springs in order to construct a hydrologic model that defines the primary flow path in the context of key macroscopic travertine accumulation patterns. This model, based on 343 in situ triplicate measurements, provides the basis for the use of travertine facies models to quantitatively reconstruct hot-spring aqueous temperature, pH, and flux solely from precipitated travertine. As an example reconstruction, we deduce that previously described Pleistocene apron and channel facies travertine quarry deposits from central Italy precipitated from hot-spring waters with a pH of 6.86 6 0.19 and a temperature of 65.4 6 3.6uC.

What do we really know about early diagenesis of non-marine carbonates?

“…), dissolution Lopez et al (2017), Westaway (1993), Pentecost et al (1997), Kele et al (2011), De Filippis et al (2012, Özkul et al (2013), Van Noten et al (2013), Lebatard et al (2014), Claes et al (2015Claes et al ( , 2017aClaes et al ( , 2017b Sorey and Colvard (1997), Fouke et al (2000Fouke et al ( , 2003, Kharaka et al (2000), Chafetz and Guidry (2003), Kandianis et al (2008), Veysey et al (2008) Cipriani et al (1977), Barazzuoli et al (1988), Guo and Riding (1992, Pentecost (1995), Minissale et al (2002), Brogi et al (2007), Brogi and Capezzuoli (2008), Pedley (2009), Gandin and Capezzuoli (2014) Arp et al (2001Arp et al ( , 2010, Shiraishi et al (2008aShiraishi et al ( , 2008b, Brinkmann et al (2015) (continued on next page) et al, 2012; Nielsen et al, 2014). Lab and field studies report ACC phases found in close association with crystalline CaCO 3 (Jones and Peng, 2012a;Pedley, 2014) and/or organisms (cyanobacteria) or organic substances (Couradeau et al, 2012;Benzerara et al, 2014;Martignier et al, 2017).…”

Comparative study of the Pleistocene Cakmak quarry (Denizli Basin, Turkey) and modern Mammoth Hot Springs deposits (Yellowstone National Park, USA)

“…Maximum temperatures are 73 C and spring waters have a minimum pH of 6 (Sorey and Colvard, 1997;Kharaka et al, 2000). These parameters evolve along the drainage outflow to ambient temperatures and a pH of 8 towards the distal portions of the system (Fouke et al, 2000;Veysey et al, 2008). Spring-water chemistry and travertine d 34 S and 87 Sr/ 86 Sr signatures indicate that waters that emerge at MHS relate to meteoric runoff in the Gallatin Mountain Range that infiltrated and migrated through the subsurface via fracture and fault zones, where it interacted at about 100 C with the Mississippian-age Madison Group limestone and evaporite deposits and potentially mixed with a magmatic-derived water source (Kharaka et al, 2000).…”

“…In the active MHS system, a sequence of five travertine depositional facies have been described along upstream-to-downstream "primary flow path" transects (Fouke et al, 2000;Veysey et al, 2008;Fouke, 2011). As the spring water cools (73 Ce25 C), degasses CO 2 (pH 6e8) and rapidly precipitates travertine (0.1e5 mm/day), a consistent downstream succession of facies forms: i.e.…”

“…6) was constructed, using the terminology of the five-fold travertine facies model as presented by Fouke (2011), Fouke et al (2000 and Veysey et al (2008). It demonstrates the spatial variability of the travertine deposits at the MHS complex.…”

“…Different travertine depositional facies models of modern spring systems have been proposed to describe the complex textural and geometric variations of ancient spring deposits (Guo and Riding, 1998;Fouke et al, 2000;Capezzuoli et al, 2014;Claes et al, 2015;Della Porta, 2015) and to accurately reconstruct the environmental conditions under which ancient deposits originally formed and evolved (Chafetz and Folk, 1984;Veysey et al, 2008;Fouke, 2011;Gandin and Capezzuoli, 2014;Sotohian and Ranjbaran, 2015). A facies, as summarized by James and Dalrymple (2010), is a 'body of (sedimentary) rock characterized by a particular combination of lithology and physical and biological structures that bestow an aspect that is different from the bodies of rock adjacent.…”