To Split or to Lump? The Importance of Facies Analysis for Interpreting
Stable Isotope Paleoclimate Proxies from Lacustrine and Palustrine
Carbonates
Abstract
Stable isotope geochemistry of terrestrial carbonates provides important
opportunities to answer questions about climates, environments, and
ecosystems both in the present day and the geologic past. Here we
present a case study from the Cretaceous Newark Canyon Formation (NCF)
type section (~98–113 Ma), where we explore how climate
and depositional settings influence the stable isotope record in highly
variable lacustrine and palustrine carbonates. The NCF was deposited
within the hinterland of the Sevier orogenic belt and allows us to
examine how North American terrestrial climate changed during the
mid-Cretaceous, a time of potentially significant regional surface
uplift and increasing global temperatures related to the Cretaceous
Thermal Maximum (Di Fiori et al., 2020; Huber et al., 2018). In this
study, we find substantial inter- and intra-facies heterogeneity,
despite having formed in the same overall climate setting, highlighting
the differences between lacustrine and palustrine environments. Stable
carbon, oxygen, and clumped isotopes (δ13C,
δ18Ocarbonate, and
Δ47) paired with optical and cathodoluminescence
petrography from along-strike lateral and vertical stratigraphic
sections show significant isotopic variability between and within seven
carbonate facies (Fetrow et al., 2020). Palustrine deposition is
interpreted to have occurred along a spectrum of shallow water depths
preserved in two key palustrine sub-facies endmembers – shallower
mottled micrite and deeper pebbly, peloid-rich micrite. These record
mean Δ47 temperatures of 51ºC and 44°C, respectively.
The mottled micrite has heavier calculated δ18O of
formation water (δ18Owater) values
indicating increased evaporative enrichment, which suggests more intense
desiccation during deposition. Lacustrine sediments preserved in
laminated biomicrite to massive micrite have mean Δ47
temperatures of 50ºC and 37°C, respectively. Elevated temperatures and
δ13C, δ18Ocarb, and
δ18Owater values more similar to
values from NCF secondary spar veins indicate that the biomicrite
sub-facies underwent diagenetic alteration. We will discuss the
implications of these results for the NCF and the Cretaceous western USA
paleoclimate record, as well as general lessons learned for interpreting
mixed terrestrial carbonate facies records.