The soda lake—mesosaline halite lake transition in the Ries impact crater basin (drilling Löpsingen 2012, Miocene, southern Germany)

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Gernot Arp ; Bent T. Hansen ; Andreas Pack ; Andreas Reimer ; Burkhard C. Schmidt…
• 关键词：Paleoenvironment ; Ries impact crater ; Soda lake ; Isotopes ; Geochemistry ; Sedimentary cycles
• 刊名：Facies
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：63
• 期：1
• 全文大小：4,361 KB
• 刊物类别：Earth and Environmental Science
• 刊物主题：Earth sciences
  Sedimentology
  Biogeosciences
  Geochemistry
  Paleontology
  Ecology
  
• 出版者：Springer Berlin / Heidelberg
• ISSN：1612-4820
• 卷排序：63

文摘

Lacustrine sediments of impact craters form valuable climate archives, although chemical evolution and changes in the catchment area potentially superimpose, distort, or obliterate primary climate signals. The 15 Ma Nördlinger Ries in southern Germany, one of the most intensively studied terrestrial impact structures, harbors a well-preserved but controversially interpreted lacustrine sedimentary fill. While earlier studies proposed a climate-driven development from a playa to a mesosaline soda lake (Units A and B), which then decreased in salinity (Units C and D), new investigations suggest a chemical evolution from a playa and soda lake (Units A–C) to a mesosaline halite lake (Unit D), which then turned into a hypersaline halite lake, until an outlet formed. However, problems in the stratigraphic correlation of basin center and margin sediments impeded the recognition of the hypothetical soda to halite lake transition to date. A new drilling in the central crater now provides a solution for the problem. Unit C still comprises analcime-rich dolomite marl with reversely correlated δ13C and δ18O values, thereby reflecting a shallow, highly alkaline, saline meromictic lake (Na–Mg–CO₃–SO₄). In turn, Unit D is characterized by a change to cycles composed of lignite, diatomite, claystone, marl, and limestone. Gypsum pseudomorphs at the cycle tops indicate saline lake water (Na–Mg–Cl–SO₄) with increased Ca2+ concentrations. Reworked, previously aragonitic, green algal tubes prove that early parts of Unit D sediments formed contemporaneously to basin margin green algal bioherms, contrary to previous assumptions. Therefore, the change from a highly alkaline soda lake to a mesosaline halite lake reflects increasing influx of waters from the Bunte Breccia into the lake, while suevite-derived weathering solutions decreased. Low-salinity conditions during Unit D are temporary phases during lake-level rise at the beginning of short-term cycles, whereas stable oxygen isotope ratios indicate meso- to hypersaline conditions at cycle tops. However, the long-term increase in salinity leading to continuous hypersaline conditions is only preserved in carbonates at the crater rim.