Physical and chemical steady-state compaction in deep-sea sediments: Role of mineral reactions

Abstract

Marine sediments typically exhibit steep porosity gradients in their uppermost centimeters. Although the decrease in porosity with depth below the sediment–water interface is primarily due to compression arising from the accumulation of overlying sediment, early diagenetic mineral dissolution and precipitation reactions may potentially also affect the porosity gradient. Here, we present a steady state compaction model, based on the mass and momentum conservation of total fluid and solid phases, in order to quantify the relative contributions of mineral reactions and physical compaction on porosity changes. The compaction model is applied to estimate hydraulic conductivity and compressive response coefficients of deep-sea sediments from measured porosity depth profiles. The results suggest an inverse relation between the compressive response coefficient and the lithogenic content of marine sediments. For deep-sea sediments exhibiting high rates of dissolution of siliceous shell fragments, the compaction model ignoring mineral reactions overestimates the hydraulic conductivity and compressive response coefficients. In contrast to non-compacting porous media, mineral dissolution in surficial sediments can lead to lower porosity. However, as illustrated for a deep-sea sediment in the equatorial Atlantic characterized by extensive dissolution of calcareous shell fragments, the effect of mineral dissolution and precipitation reactions on porosity gradients is, in most cases, negligible.