Microbially induced chromium isotope fractionation and trace elements behavior in lower Cambrian microbialites from the Jaíba Member, Bambuí Basin, Brazil.

In east-central Brazil, the Ediacaran-Cambrian Bambuí Basin has the potential to provide a record of unique geochemical responses of Earth's ocean and atmosphere evolution during this key time interval. From this perspective, we studied an interval of the upper Bambuí Basin using sedimentologic, stratigraphic, and chemostratigraphic tools. The lower Cambrian Jaíba Member of the uppermost Serra da Saudade Formation is an interval of up to 60 m-thick of carbonate rocks disposed into two shallowing upward trends. Inner to outer ramp and high-energy shoal deposits are described, in which laminated microbialites are the prevailing sedimentary facies. REE + Y data suggest contamination by iron (oxy)hydroxides that are dissociated from the riverine detritic flux. Sedimentary iron enrichment may be related to the settling of iron nanoparticles in coastal environments, diagenetic iron mobilization, or both. MREE enrichment is caused by microbial degradation of organic matter in the iron reduction zone during the anoxic early-diagenetic stage. Chromium isotopes yielded negatively fractionated values (δ53 Cr = -0.69 to -0.27‰), probably resulting from biotic and abiotic reduction of dissolved Cr(VI) to light and less toxic Cr(III) within pores of microbial mats. The δ53 Cr data of the Jaíba microbialite are thus a product of metabolic reactions in microbial mats and do not reflect seawater signal. The isotopic offset from seawater is feasible from molecular diffusion of Cr into pore water and reduction reactions occurring deep inside the mat, although the exact mechanism and consequences are not yet fully understood due to the poor preservation of metabolic reactions in the geological record. Our study suggests that Cr isotopes can be used to reconstruct Cr and other metals cycling within ancient microbial mats, and that caution should be taken when using past microbialites to infer seawater Cr records and redox state of the atmosphere and ocean.

C-, Sr-isotope stratigraphy of carbonate rocks from the Southern Espinhaço Ridge, Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil.

Neoproterozoic carbonate rocks comprise different stratigraphic units in the southern part of the Espinhaço Ridge, Minas Gerais, Brazil. C, O- and Sr-isotope analyses were carried out along four selected stratigraphic sections across these formations. These are: (i) the Rio Pardo Grande Formation in the upper portion of the Espinhaço Supergroup, sampled in section 3; (ii) Macaúbas Group laminated limestones (Tijucuçu Farm) and dolostone layers (Domingas Formation) have been respectively sampled along the so-called sections 1 and 2, and (iii) the lower stratigraphic units of the Bambuí Group, sampled in section 4. Laminated limestone samples from the Macaúbas Group have δ13C values as high as 10.9‰ decreasing up section to -1.1‰ and 87Sr/86Sr values vary from 0.7072 to 0.7076, a range commonly observed in Cryogenian rocks. In section 2, dolomitic samples exhibit 87Sr/86Sr from 0.7076 to 0.7077 while in section 3, 87Sr/86Sr from 0.7074 to 0.7079. In section 4, 87Sr/86Sr values are around 0.7080. The values of 87Sr/86Sr observed in carbonate samples from the Macaúbas Group are similar to those observed in the Sr-isotope secular curve for the Neoproterozoic. Carbonate samples from the base of the Bambuí Group correlate with Ediacaran fingerprints, after the Marinoan (ca. 635 Ma) glaciation.