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Article Dans Une Revue Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology Année : 2012

From black-and-white to colour in the Silurian

Résumé

Ironstones and iron-rich limestones regularly occur as components of time-specific intervals of the Palaeozoic as well as in younger times (Brett et al., 2012--this issue). Silurian sediments deposited at high latitudes along the peri-Gondwana border are characterized by black and white limestone and graptolitic shale sequences. Those in the Carnic Alps (southern Austria) additionally contain colourful pink to red limestones and ironstones. Laminated structures such as the (ferruginous)-coatings around skeletal fragments (mostly trilobites and some cephalopods and echinoderms) and stromatolitic features along discontinuity surfaces display dark red, green, white and brownish colours due to the presence of goethite, magnetite, hematite, chamosite, calcite and subordinate apatite. Confocal laser Raman microscopy and complementary microscopic analysis of these ferruginous laminated structures document the presence of carbonaceous matter associated with fossilized microbial structures in the form of stromatolites, filaments and coccoids, suggesting a microbial role in the colouring of the Silurian world of the Carnic Alps. Iron concentrations up to 30 × that of matrix and surrounding non-ferruginous rocks suggest blooms of iron microbe activity in response to the time-specific occurrence of chemically charged sea water during global biotic events.

Dates et versions

hal-00817357 , version 1 (24-04-2013)

Identifiants

Citer

Annalisa Ferretti, Barbara Cavalazzi, Roberto Barbieri, Frances Westall, Frédéric Foucher, et al.. From black-and-white to colour in the Silurian. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2012, 367-368, pp.178-192. ⟨10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.10.025⟩. ⟨hal-00817357⟩
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