Carbon isotope stratigraphy of an ancient (Ordovician) Bahamian-type carbonate platform: Implications for preservation of global seawater trends

Carbon isotope stratigraphy has a unique role in the interpretation of Earth history as one of the few geochemical proxies that have been widely applied throughout the geologic time scale, from the Precambrian to the Recent, as both a global correlation tool and proxy for the carbon cycle. However, in addition to consideration of the role of diagenesis, numerous studies have raised awareness of the fact that C-isotope trends derived from ancient carbonate platforms may not be representative of dissolved inorganic carbon from a well-mixed global ocean reservoir. Furthermore, the larger carbon isotopic fractionation in the formation of aragonite versus calcite from seawater must be taken into account. All three of these variables (diagenesis, water mass residence time, % aragonite) may change in response to sea level, producing trends in C-isotopes on ancient carbonate platforms that are unrelated to the global carbon cycle. Global carbon cycle fluxes may also have a cause-effect relationship with sea level changes, further complicating interpretations of stratigraphic trends in carbon isotopes from ancient platform environments. Studies of C-isotopes in modern carbonate platform settings such as the Great Bahama Bank (GBB) provide important analogues in addressing whether or not ancient platforms are likely to preserve a record of carbon cycling in the global ocean. Swart et al. (2009) found that waters of the GBB had generally the same or elevated values (ranging from +0.5‰ to +2.5‰) compared to the global oceans, interpreted as reflecting differential photosynthetic fractionation and precipitation of calcium carbonate (which lowers pH and converts bicarbonate into 12-C enriched carbon dioxide, leaving residual bicarbonate heavier). Carbonate sediments of the GBB have elevated C-isotopes, not only because of the high C-isotope composition of the overlying waters, but also due to the greater fractionation associated with precipitation of aragonite versus calcite. Few studies of ancient carbonates have attempted to explicitly compare C-isotope trends in both restricted platform settings and open marine settings (e.g., Immenhauser et al. 2002). We studied a restricted Bahamian-type carbonate platform of Middle-Late Ordovician (Darriwilian-early Sandbian) age included in the St. Paul Group of Maryland, notable for sedimentologic evidence of severe restriction and a general lack of open marine macrofauna. We are able to correlate the C-isotope curve from the St. Paul Group to other sections globally by using a combination of conodont microfossils and measurement of Sr isotopes on conodont apatite. Coeval C-isotope trends from open marine settings in the western United States and Estonia are comparable to the restricted platform in Maryland. In our Ordovician example, local factors appear to have modified the magnitude of the global trends, but not the timing and direction. A remaining question is whether magnitude differences are a function of sedimentation rate and completeness. We continue to test hypotheses of global correlations of C-isotope trends in the Middle-Late Ordovician by utilizing the rapidly changing Sr isotope curve at that time.