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Constraining oceanic oxygenation during the Shuram excursion in South China using thallium isotopes TEXT SIZE: A A A

Ediacaran sediments record an unusual global carbon cycle perturbation that has been linked to widespread oceanic oxygenation, the Shuram negative C isotope excursion (NCIE). However, proxy-based estimates of global ocean redox conditions during this event have been limited largely due to proxy specificity (e.g., euxinic sediments for Mo and U isotopes). Modern global seawater documents a homogenous Tl isotope composition (epsilon Tl-205 = -6.0) due to significant manganese oxide burial, which is recorded in modern euxinic sediments. Here, we provide new data documenting that sediments deposited beneath reducing but a non-sulfidic water column from the Santa Barbara Basin (epsilon Tl-205 = -5.6 +/- 0.1) also faithfully capture global seawater Tl isotope values. Thus, the proxy utilization of Tl isotopes can extend beyond strictly euxinic settings. Second, to better constrain the global redox conditions during the Shuram NCIE, we measured Tl isotopes of locally euxinic and ferruginous shales of the upper Doushantuo Formation, South China. The epsilon Tl-205 values of these shales exhibit a decreasing trend from approximate to-3 to approximate to-8, broadly coinciding with the onset of Shuram NCIE. There are epsilon Tl-205 values (-5.1 to -7.8) during the main Shuram NCIE interval that approach values more negative than modern global seawater. These results suggest that manganese oxide burial was near or even greater than modern burial fluxes, which is likely linked to an expansion of oxic conditions. This ocean oxygenation may have been an important trigger for the Shuram NCIE and evolution of Ediacaran-type biota. Subsequently, Tl isotopes show an increasing trend from the modern ocean value to values near the modern global inputs or even heavier (epsilon Tl-205 approximate to -2.5 similar to 0.4), occurring prior to recovery from the NCIE. These records may suggest that there was a decrease in the extent of oxygenated conditions in the global oceans during the late stage of the Shuram NCIE. 

Publication name

 GEOBIOLOGY DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12379 Early Access: FEB 2020

Author(s)

 Fan, Haifeng; Nielsen, Sune G.; Owens, Jeremy D.; Auro, Maureen; Shu, Yunchao; Hardisty, Dalton S.; Horner, Tristan J.; Bowman, Chelsie N.; Young, Seth A.; Wen, Hanjie

Corresponding author(s) 

 FAN Haifeng
 fanhaifeng@mail.gyig.ac.cn   
 Chinese Acad Sci, Inst Geochem, State Key Lab Ore Deposit Geochem, Guiyang 550081, Peoples R China.

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