Master of Arts / Department of Geography / Kendra K. McLauchlan / The importance of local parent material has been recognized as a fundamental control on the geochemistry of lake sediments, but there have been relatively few broad-scale surveys of catchment sources of terrigenous lake sediments. In this paper, I present a geochemical study of catchment parent materials and lake sediments from four lakes in Northern Minnesota. Similar climate and vegetation conditions are present at all four lakes, which vary mainly in catchment parent material and lake morphometry. Geochemical data including major, trace and rare earth elements (REEs) from catchment parent material samples was compared with lake sediment geochemical data using PCA, linear regression, geological indices and elemental ratios. In homogenous till-dominated catchments, patterns of elemental variation in the catchment till could be extended to predict elemental concentrations in the lake sediments. Simple ratios, which are commonly used to analyze lake sediment geochemical data, were not good predictors of lake sediment composition, however. Catchments with mixed bedrock and till were compositionally heterogeneous, and comparison with lake sediments was difficult. Lack of grain size control and biogenic silica measurements further confounded analysis. However, ΣREE/Y ratio was found to be diagnostic of the catchment parent materials and present within the lake sediments. This study makes a contribution to an improved understanding of lacustrine sedimentary archives by analyzing the spatial linkages among catchment, water and sedimentary geochemistry.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu Köln, 1982. / Summary in English and German. Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-194).

Understanding oxygenation throughout Earth history, particularly intervals where marine deoxygenation occurred, are crucial to investigating the changes in habitability on Earth. Marine deoxygenation events, in particular, can result in changes in the carbon, sulfur, and iron cycles on our planet. Changes in these elemental cycles lead to distinctive variation in the chemical composition of seawater that is recorded in marine sediments that are preserved into the sedimentary record. Our modern ocean is experiencing rapid deoxygenation, thus understanding the duration and extent of ancient deoxygenation events is vital to predicting future climate scenarios. Here I investigated the record of environmental change during the Early Jurassic Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event or T-OAE (~183 Ma). The first chapter of this dissertation investigates the record of marine anoxia across the Pliensbachian to Toarcian transition. Specifically, I investigate the temporal and geographic development of anoxia across three basins from the European Epicontinental Seaway. Through utilization of iron speciation, a local redox proxy, I identify anoxia developing before and persisting well after the negative carbon isotope excursion (NCIE) conventionally used to define the T-OAE. These data indicate an increase in the occurrence of anoxia at the Pliensbachian – Toarcian boundary, coincident with the initial phase of volcanism associated with the Karoo-Ferrar Large Igneous Province and an interval of heightened marine invertebrate extinction. Ultimately, our data support a greater temporal extent of anoxic conditions around the T-OAE, which support the greater sensitivity of marine oxygen levels to climatic change outside of the NCIE interval. The second chapter of this dissertation assesses the occurrence and extent of organic matter sulfurization (OMS), a biogeochemical feedback known to enhance the preservation and burial of OM. Because this process is accelerated when euxinic conditions develop in the water column, I investigated it as a mechanism promoting OM burial across two oceanic anoxic events of the Mesozoic. Importantly, I find that sulfurization does not occur uniformly across both events and propose a conceptual model of the depositional settings most favorable for sulfurization to occur and when throughout geologic time OMS is most likely to influence the global cycles of carbon and sulfur. / Doctor of Philosophy / Understanding past time intervals where there was widespread loss of oxygen in the oceans is crucial to understanding habitability on Earth. Since our modern oceans are experiencing a rapid loss of oxygen, understanding the duration and extent of ancient marine oxygen loss events is vital to predicting future habitability of the oceans. These ancient events can result in distinctive changes in the carbon, sulfur, and iron cycles on our planet. Variation in these elemental cycles lead to distinctive shifts in the chemical composition of seawater that is recorded in marine sediments that get preserved as rocks in the geologic record. Here, I investigated the record of environmental change during the Early Jurassic Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event or T-OAE (~183 Ma). The first chapter of this dissertation investigates the record of marine oxygen loss across the T-OAE. Specifically, I investigate the temporal and geographic development of oxygen loss across three ancient marine basins. Through utilization of a local tracer of water column oxygen loss (e.g. iron speciation) I identify oxygen loss developing before and persisting well after the conventional timeframe associated with the event. These data indicate oxygen loss first occurred before the T-OAE, coincident with the initial phase of volcanic eruptions from the Karoo-Ferrar Large Igneous Province and an interval of heightened marine extinction. Ultimately, these data support a longer time interval of oxygen loss around the T-OAE and the greater sensitivity of marine oxygen levels to climatic change. The second chapter of this dissertation assesses the occurrence and extent of organic matter sulfurization (OMS), a feedback known to enhance the preservation and burial of organic matter (OM). Because this process is accelerated when oxygen is lost and free sulfur builds up in the water column, I investigated its occurrence across two oceanic oxygen loss events of the Mesozoic Era. Importantly, I find that sulfurization does not occur uniformly across both events and propose a conceptual model of the settings most favorable for sulfurization to occur and also when in geologic time it is most likely to influence the global cycling of carbon and sulfur.

Les variations latérales d'exhumation de l'Himalaya sont peu documentées, notamment dans la partie est. Dans ce mémoire, l'évolution de la chaîne himalayenne est étudiée à partir de trois coupes réalisées dans le bassin d'avant-pays mio-pliocène où l'âge des sédiments a été déterminé par magnétostratigraphie. La contribution des différents domaines sources ainsi que leur exhumation ont été définies par des analyses géochimiques (εNd) et de thermochronologie détritique (apatite et zircon). Dans la partie orientale, nos observations suggèrent que les surrections concomitantes du plateau du Shillong et du prisme Indo-Birman ont repoussé le Brahmapoutre vers 7 Ma le long du front de la chaîne himalayenne. Les résultats des analyses de thermochronologie détritique soulignent une dynamique et des vitesses d'exhumation (1,7 km/Ma) semblables à celles de la partie centrale de la chaîne, en dépit de précipitations plus intenses et malgré la présence du plateau du Shillong au sud qui pourrait avoir absorbé une partie du raccourcissement tectonique. En revanche, l'installation d'une exhumation contrastée semble légèrement plus tardive que dans la partie centrale et ouest de la chaîne. Enfin, ces travaux suggèrent qu'au niveau de la syntaxe orientale il a existé un temps de latence d'au moins 3 Ma avant l'installation d'une rétroaction tectonique-érosion dans le massif du Namche Barwa liée à l'installation d'un drainage transverse à la chaîne. Au sein même de la partie centrale de la chaîne des variations latérales d'exhumation ont été mises en évidence, notamment, la mise en place au Népal occidental d'une exhumation rapide, reconnue dès 13 Ma, alors que celle-ci semble plus tardive dans la partie orientale du Népal. L'étude de la coupe occidentale a montré que le réseau de drainage du paléo-Indus est stable dans le bassin d'avant-pays depuis le Miocène moyen. En revanche, la proportion de matériaux provenant de l'Himalaya augmente à partir du Pliocène et ceci de manière généralisée le long de la partie ouest de la chaîne, suggérant un changement drastique des conditions d'exhumation de la chaîne. L'exhumation de la chaîne himalayenne apparaît donc comme étant segmentée latéralement. La mise en place d'une exhumation contrastée et diachrone le long de la chaîne ne semble donc pas liée à d'éventuels changements climatiques qui auraient affecté la chaîne de manière globale. La dynamique d'exhumation du prisme himalayen observée actuellement semble donc liée à des hétérogénéités de la croûte indienne, qui contrôlerait la mise en place des structures profondes de la chaîne. / From west to east along the Himalayan range, exhumation rates are variable and remain poorly constrained for the most part, especially in the eastern part of the mountain belt. To better understand their variability and to determine the influence of climatic and tectonic control, this thesis investigates the evolution of the range thanks to samples collected from three sections located in the eastern, central and western parts of the Mio-Pliocene Himalayan foreland basin. In these sections, sediment depositional ages were determined using magnetostratigraphy. Sediment provenance and contribution of the main litho-tectonic source-rock units were identified using geochemical analyses (Nd), while exhumation rates were determined with detrital apatite and zircon thermochronology. In the eastern part of the Himalaya, our results from the Kameng section in Arunachal Pradesh suggest that the surface uplift of both the Shillong Plateau and the Indo-Burman range have pushed the Brahmaputra River to the north, in front of the Himalayan range at about 7 Ma. Miocene-Pliocene exhumation rates inferred from detrital thermochronology are on the order of 1.7 km/Myr for the fastest exhuming areas, which is close to the rates reported for the central part of the range. Therefore, the distribution of precipitation, as well as the Shillong Plateau uplift which may have modified the convergence rate between the Indian and Eurasian plates, seem to have minor influence on the exhumation of eastern Himalaya. However, the onset of contrasting exhumation seems to have begun somewhat earlier than in the western and central parts of the range. In addition, our results highlight a 3 Myr time-lag between the installation of the Brahmaputra as a trunk river in the eastern syntaxes, and the onset of a fast exhumation there. Within the central part of the Himalaya, our work along the Muksar section in eastern Nepal documents lateral variations in exhumation rates, as western Nepal has been exhuming rapidly since 13 Ma, whereas the onset of fast exhumation seems to have occured later in eastern Nepal. Our results from the Chinji section in Pakistan, in western Himalaya, suggest that the Indus drainage network in the foreland basin has been stable since the middle Miocene. However, the Himalayan source contribution has been increasing since the Pliocene all along the western part of the range, and this suggests that a drastic change in the exhumation dynamics of the range occurred at that time. The Himalayan exhumation seems to be divided into independent segments along the range. The lateral variability in exhumation rates and timing of changes in exhumation rates do not seem to be linked to climatic change, which should produce a global response of the range. The exhumation dynamics is more likely to be linked to the tectonics structuring the wedge, possibly controlled by the crustal heterogeneity within the Indian plate.

Submitted by Fabio Sobreira Campos da Costa (fabio.sobreira@ufpe.br) on 2017-07-17T15:28:20Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Tese João Allyson Ribeiro de Carvalho.pdf: 2888123 bytes, checksum: f35cc4dd6b479577883782b92fdc5472 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-17T15:28:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) Tese João Allyson Ribeiro de Carvalho.pdf: 2888123 bytes, checksum: f35cc4dd6b479577883782b92fdc5472 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-20 / A evolução geoquímica de sedimentos estuarinos próximos à embocadura do rio Timbó é abordada em perfil de sedimentos de fundo, atingindo o início do século XIX. Com base em datações 210Pb a transição séculos XIX/XX é atingida no intervalo 51-54cm. Os sedimentos, pelíticos, mostram dominância de fração carbonática bioclástica (~ 50% do sedimento total), sobretudo planctônica, diminuindo gradualmente no sentido do topo. A taxa de sedimentação linear média é de 3,9 mm/ano no século XX, de 6,7 mm/ano na transição entre os séculos XIX/XX, e de 3,6 mm/ano no século XIX. A evolução industrial, o desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias, e o forte crescimento populacional (segunda metade do século XX) são as principais forçantes antrópicas que modificaram as características hidrodinâmicas e geoquímicas da bacia hidrográfica nos últimos 210 anos. Apesar da reduzida capacidade de complexação iônica destes sedimentos, foi possível evidenciar, da base para o topo, marcos geoquímicos históricos: a) Evento Krakatoa – 1883; b) Fase regional de devastação da mata atlântica – transição séculos XIX/XX, com duração de pelo menos 15 anos; c) Advento de motores movidos a combustíveis, com adição de Pb-tetraetila - transição décadas 20/30; d) Generalização de práticas agrícolas regionais com fertilizantes industriais fosfáticos – transição décadas 50/60; e) Aumento generalizado e progressivo em teores de MP até os dias atuais – transição décadas de 60/70. O status ambiental revela-se contaminado em As (desde o século XIX), em Cr (desde os anos 90 do século XX), e deverá estar comprometido em Hg, nos próximos 25 anos. / The geochemical evolution of estuarine sediments near the mouth of the river Timbó is investigated from bottom sediments profile, reaching the early nineteenth century. Based on 210Pb dating the transition XIX / XX is reached at the level 5154cm. The sediments are pelites that show dominance of bioclastic carbonate fraction (~ 50% of total sediment), particularly planktonic, who decreases gradually towards the top. The linear sedimentation rate shows an average of 3.9 mm/year along the 20th century, 6.7 mm/year in the transition between the 19th/20th centuries, and 3.6 mm/year in the 19th century. The industrial revolution, the development of new technologies, and the strong population growth (second half of 20th century) are the main anthropic forcing that changed the hydrodynamic and geochemical behavior of the basin in the last 210 years. Despite the low possibility of ionic complexation of these estuarine sediments the following historic geochemical markers were featured, from bottom to top: a) Krakatoa event - 1883; b) stage of devastation of the tropical rainforest - transition XIX/XX centuries , remaining at least along 15 years; c) advent of fuel-powered engines with addition of tetraethyl-Pb - transition decades 20/30; d) generalization of regional agricultural practices using industrial phosphatic fertilizer - transition decades 50/60; e) general and progressive increase in levels of MP to the present day - transition decades 60/70. The environmental status is indicated as Ascontaminated (since the 19th century), Cr-contaminated (since the 90’s of 20th century), and should be identical for Hg in the next 25 years.