A transient peak in marine sulfate after the 635-Ma snowball Earth

Yongbo Peng; Huiming Bao; Ganqing Jiang; Peter Crockford; Dong Feng; Shuhai Xiao; Alan Jay Kaufman; Jiasheng Wang

doi:10.1073/pnas.2117341119

A transient peak in marine sulfate after the 635-Ma snowball Earth

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 May 10;119(19):e2117341119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2117341119. Epub 2022 May 2.

Authors

Yongbo Peng^{1

2}, Huiming Bao^{1

2}, Ganqing Jiang³, Peter Crockford^{4

5}, Dong Feng⁶, Shuhai Xiao⁷, Alan Jay Kaufman⁸, Jiasheng Wang^{9

10}

Affiliations

¹ International Center for Isotope Effects Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
² School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
³ Department of Geoscience, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154.
⁴ Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138.
⁵ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 7610001, Israel.
⁶ Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Hadal Science and Technology, College of Marine Sciences, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China.
⁷ Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
⁸ Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environment Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
¹⁰ Hubei Key Laboratory of Marine Geological Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.

Abstract

SignificanceEarth system's response to major perturbations is of paramount interest. On the basis of multiple isotope compositions for pyrite, carbonate-associated sulfate, carbonates, and organics within, we inferred that the much-debated, enigmatic, extremely ¹³C-depleted calcite cements in the ∼635-Ma cap carbonates in South China preserve geochemical evidence for marine microbial sulfate reduction coupled to anaerobic oxidation of methane. This interpretation implies the existence of a brief interval of modern-level marine sulfate. We determined that this interval coincides with the earliest Ediacaran ¹⁷O-depletion episode, and both likely occurred within ∼50 ky since the onset of the 635-Ma meltdown, revealing an astonishing pace of transformation of the Earth system in the aftermath of Earth's latest snowball glaciation.

Keywords: 17O anomaly; methane oxidation; oxidation; snowball Earth; sulfate.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't