Sedimentary environment of the cold-seep carbonate chimneys, north of the South China Sea

YANG Kehong; CHU Fengyou; ZHAO Jianru; HAN Xiqiu; YE Liming; ZHANG Weiyan

doi:10.3969/j.issn.0253 4193.2013.02.010

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YANG Kehong, CHU Fengyou, ZHAO Jianru, HAN Xiqiu, YE Liming, ZHANG Weiyan. Sedimentary environment of the cold-seep carbonate chimneys, north of the South China Sea[J]. Haiyang Xuebao, 2013, 35(2): 82-89. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253 4193.2013.02.010

Citation:

YANG Kehong, CHU Fengyou, ZHAO Jianru, HAN Xiqiu, YE Liming, ZHANG Weiyan. Sedimentary environment of the cold-seep carbonate chimneys, north of the South China Sea[J]. Haiyang Xuebao, 2013, 35(2): 82-89. doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253 4193.2013.02.010

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Sedimentary environment of the cold-seep carbonate chimneys, north of the South China Sea

doi: 10.3969/j.issn.0253 4193.2013.02.010

Key Laboratory of Submarine Geosciences of State Oceonic Administration, Hangzhou 310012, China;Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou 310012, China

Received Date: 2012-03-27
Rev Recd Date: 2012-07-12

Abstract

Abstract

Some cold-seep carbonate chimneys collected from the north continental slope of the South China Sea were studied for petrology, mineralogy and geochemistry. The cross cut samples clearly showed distinctive layers. In the inner layer, the carbonate content was higher, and contained higher MgCO₃ and bigger minerals, and the minerals crystallized better. While the outer layer contained higher detritus such as Al and Si. The isotopes compositions of δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O were different between the inner and outer layers. For the two studied samples, in the inner layer, δ¹³C is -40.80×10^-3 and -31.27×10^-3,and δ¹⁸O is 2.67×10^-3 and 2.00×10^-3, individually, and in the outer layer, δ¹³C is -31.26×10^-3 and -30.99×10^-3, and δ¹⁸O is 0.48×10^-3 and 1.85×10^-3, individually. Integrating the former researches near this area, the pattern that δ¹³C was increasing and δ¹⁸O was decreasing from the inner layer to the outer layer. The δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O curves using 1mm interval samples range from -27.50×10^-3 to -32.05×10^-3 and 0.78×10^-3 to 2.34×10^-3 from the outer layer to the inner layer individually, which showed the layer structure well. In the outer 6 mm, the δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O had a strongly negative correlation, which correlation coefficient r² was 0.996 7. According to the above results, the characteristic of CH₄ fluid, its diffusing model and its influences on the sedimentary environment were discussed. The carbonate chimneys studied in this paper were supposed to form in a single channel, but which layer was older needs more dating researches. The outer 6 mm was influenced strongly by the seawater. The results can be used to recover the methane seep system of the northern continental slope of the South China Sea and can also give some relationships between cold seeps and hydrothermal seeps.
- carbonate chimneys,
- circle layer structure,
- cold seep,
- north of the South China Sea

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References(23)

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