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Trace element abundances in the Rock Canyon Anticline, Pueblo, Colorado, marine sedimentary section and their relationahip to Caribbean plateau construction and oxygen anoxic event 2

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Title Trace element abundances in the Rock Canyon Anticline, Pueblo, Colorado, marine sedimentary section and their relationahip to Caribbean plateau construction and oxygen anoxic event 2
Names Snow, Laura J. (creator)
Duncan, Robert A. (creator)
Bralower, Timothy J. (creator)
Date Issued 2005-08-04 (iso8601)
Note copyrighted by American Geophysical Union
Abstract Rapid eruption of submarine lava flows during formation of the Caribbean plateau correlates closely with
ocean anoxic event 2 (OAE2), which bracketed the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary (~93.5 Ma). These events
also correspond with a positive excursion in carbon isotopic composition of seawater. Hydrothermal activity
associated with large-scale submarine volcanism may have been responsible for this abrupt change in ocean
chemistry. We determined the distribution of major, minor, and trace element abundances in the Rock Canyon
marine sedimentary section (Pueblo, Colorado). After normalizing element concentrations to Zr to remove the
variable contribution of terrigenous material to these sediments, we detected an interval of concentrated metal
abundance anomalies that coincides with the abrupt beginning of the positive δ¹³C isotope excursion. The metal
abundance anomalies indicate that intermittent hydrothermal activity, in the form of both water/rock exchange
and magmatic degassing, introduced large concentrations of trace metals into the Cretaceous ocean at the same
time that extinctions of benthic species, turnover in plankton communities, and increases in isotopically light
organic carbon burial occurred. The stratigraphic position of this interval of trace metal anomalies matches
events associated with OAE2 and indicates that intermittent hydrothermal activity on a massive scale triggered
abrupt changes in carbon burial and deep ocean oxygen contents.
Genre Article
Identifier Bralower, T. J., Duncan, R. A., and Snow, L. J. (2005), Trace element abundances in the Rock Canyon Anticline, Pueblo, Colorado, marine sedimentary section and their relationship to Caribbean plateau construction and oxygen anoxic event 2. Paleoceanography, 20, PA3005.

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