中国科学院南京地质古生物研究所机构知识库

The snowball Earth (SBE) describes a state of the Earth's climate with global or near-global ice cover. The cap dolostone at the base of the Ediacaran successions serves as useful archives for studying environmental change during the Marinoan Snowball Earth deglaciation in Neoproterozoic. The characteristic compositions in dolomite provide critical information on continental weathering and coastal water mixing after glacial retreat. However, valid methods for pristine dolomite separation remain challenging. In this study, four selected cap dolostone samples from the base of the Ediacaran Lantian Formation were used for establishing a new 3-step leaching method, to remove the secondary calcite and other impurities before determination of d(26)Mg and Sr-87/Sr-86 in dolomite. Non-destructive Raman, X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to examine the distribution of dolomite and minor calcite/silicate in each sample. Micro-drill powders before each extraction procedure were examined in weight loss and mineralogical compositions, as well as the chemicals in the leaching solutions. Potential diagenetic artifacts were evaluated using Sr/Ca, Mn/Sr, Sr-87/Sr-86 and d(26)Mg in solutions. By applying a simple two-end member mixing between the seawater and the silicate sources (R-2 = 0.48, n = 23), the down-core variations of d(26)Mg and Sr-87/Sr-86 in cap dolostone can be used to gain a better understand of the temporal weathering intensity changes, as well as the coastal oceanic mixing processes, after the Marinoan deglaciation.