Sulfur Isotopic Composition of Gypsum from Paleocene, Northwest China: Implications for the Evolution of Eastern Paratethys Seawater

Abstract

The sulfate isotope record of marine sedimentary sulfate through time has been used successfully to determine global variations in the composition of seawater sulfate. The variations in the sulfur isotope composition of marine sulfate reflect changes in the global sulfur cycle and are also closely related to changes in the atmospheric oxygen cycles. However, data for the Paleocene are very sparse and the stratigraphic evolution of the sulfur isotope composition of seawater is poorly constrained due to the small number of samples analyzed. The Yarkand Basin, as a northeastern part of the eastern Paratethys ocean with the trumpet-shaped bay, in which a suite of evaporitic sequences named the Aertashen Formation was continuously developed in the Paleocene and was principally composed of massive gypsum interbedded fragmental rocks. The values of sulfur isotopic composition are from 12.2‰ to 20.6‰ (δ34 SCDT or δ34 SVCDT) and the mean is 17.7‰ in 97 gypsum samples in the basin. Three gradually increasing trends of sulfur isotopic curves reflect that enrichment of δ34 S occurred in seawater sulfate, and indicate oxidation of seawater sulfide. These may hint to at least three oxidation events or the bacterial reduction of seawater sulfide that occurred in the Paleocene, and that three oxygen-enriched events or the biological sulfur cycle might exist in this epoch. The sulfur isotopic composition (δ34 SCDT or δ34 SVCDT) in the seawater of the northeastern part of the eastern Paratethys ocean was about 15.0‰ to 20.6‰, and averaged 17.9‰ in the Paleocene. Combined with the previous global sulfur isotopic composition of seawater, the final range of global sulfur isotopic composition of seawater might be from 15.0‰ to 21.0‰, with 17.9‰–18.3‰ the average in the Paleocene, so the variations in the sulfur isotope composition of Paleocene seawater sulfate are reconstructed and supplemented.