Changes in Magnetic Parameters After Sequential Iron Phase Extraction of Eastern Mediterranean Sapropel S1 Sediments

Abstract

Iron is distributed over different minerals (i.e. silicates, pyrite, detrital oxides) that are present in a sediment sequence that formed under anoxic conditions. After post-depositional re-oxidation of the sediments pyrite is no longer present and diagenetic iron phases constitute an important portion of the iron in the oxidised part of the sapropel. They are very fine-grained making them amenable to analysis by means of sequential extraction and mineral-magnetic methods. The sequential extraction shows that besides iron in silicates, iron mainly occurs in ‘amorphous’ oxides in the oxidised part of the S1 sapropel. Pyrite constitutes an important fraction in the still reduced part of the S1 sapropel. Some silicon is dissolved during the extraction for the ‘amorphous’ oxides, suggesting that ‘amorphous’ iron also occurs as ferro-silicate coatings. Mineral-magnetic analysis involved component analysis of the isothermal remanent magnetisation (IRM) and hysteresis loop measurements. Three coercivity phases could be identified in the IRM component analysis; these were interpreted as ‘detrital’ magnetite, hematite, and biogenic magnetite. The diagenetically formed iron phases influence the parameters of the IRM components. Hysteresis measurements together with the IRM component analysis, indicate the importance of bacterial magnetite in the oxidised sapropel, particularly in the lower part of the active oxidation zone.