Lithology, biostratigraphy, and geochemistry of the Black Sea sediments, DSDP Leg 42 (pt. 2) data

The monograph presents results of deep-sea drilling in the Black Sea carried out in 1975. Detailed lithological, biostratigraphic and geochemical studies of Miocene-Holocene sediments have been carried out by specialists from institutes of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University and other organizations. Drilling results are compared with geophysical data. Geological history of the Black Sea basin is considered as well.

Hydrochemical and geothermic data on the Caribbean-Mexican region

Results of detailed geophysical, geological and gas- and hydrochemical research in the Caribbean-Mexican Basin and the Western Atlantic obtained during Cruise 4 of R/V Akademik Nikolaj Strakhov are published in the book. Distribution of the thermal field in different tectonic structures of the region is shown. Places of submarine hydrothermal vent discharge in tectonically active structures are described. They are confirmed by geothermal, geological and hydrochemical data. Based on lithofacies analysis of modern sediments installed their Specificity of different genetic types, facies and macrofacies of recent sediments in different geomorphological zones of the sea floor is shown. For description of hydrogeochemical situation of modern sedimentation and primary diagenesis the water column and interstitial sediment waters have been studied.

Geochemical parameters of sediments and water of the Black Sea, data of Cruise 8 of R/V Vityaz-2

The book presents results of comprehensive geological investigations carried out during Cruise 8 of R/V "Vityaz-2" to the western part of the Black Sea in 1984. Systematic studies in the Black Sea during about hundred years have not weakened interest in the sea. Lithological and geochemical studies of sediments in estuarine areas of the Danube and the Kyzyl-Irmak rivers, as well as in adjacent parts of the deep sea and some other areas were the main aims of the cruise. Data on morphological structures of river fans, lithologic and chemical compositions of sediments in the fans and their areal distribution, forms of occurrence of chemical elements, role of organic matter and gases in sedimentation and diagenesis are given and discussed in the book.

(Table 1) Stable isotope data of chemoherm carbonates at Hydrate Ridge on the Cascadia continental margin

Two active chemoherm build-ups growing freely up into the oceanic water column, the Pinnacle and the South East-Knoll Chemoherms, have been discovered at Hydrate Ridge on the Cascadia continental margin. These microbially-mediated carbonate formations rise above the seafloor by several tens of meters and display a pinnacle-shaped morphology with steep flanks. The recovered rocks are pure carbonates dominated by aragonite. Based on fabric and mineralogic composition different varieties of authigenic aragonite can be distinguished. Detailed visual and petrographic investigations unambiguously reveal the involvement of microbes during the formation of the carbonates. The fabric of the cryptocrystalline and fibrous aragonite can be described as thrombolitic. Fossilized microbial filaments in the microcrystalline aragonite indicate the intimate relationship between microbes and carbonates. The strongly 13C-depleted carbon isotope values of the samples (as low as -48.1 per mill PDB) are characteristic of methane as the major carbon source for the carbonate formation. The methane-rich fluids from which the carbonates are precipitated originate most probably from a gas reservoir below the bottom-simulating reflector (BSR) and rise through fault systems. The d18O values of the aragonitic chemoherm carbonates are substantially higher (as high as 5.0 per mill PDB) than the expected equilibrium value for an aragonite forming from ambient seawater (3.5 per mill PDB). As a first approximation this indicates formation from glacial ocean water but other factors are considered as well. A conceptual model is presented for the precipitation of these chemoherm carbonates based on in situ observations and the detailed petrographic investigation of the carbonates. This model explains the function of the consortium of archaea and sulfate-reducing bacteria that grows on the carbonates performing anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) and enabling the precipitation of the chemoherms above the seafloor surrounded by oxic seawater. Beggiatoa mats growing on the surface of the chemoherms oxidize the sulfide provided by sulfate-dependent anaerobic oxidation of methane within an oxic environment. The contact between Beggiatoa and the underlying microbial consortium represents the interface between the overlying oxic water column and an anoxic micro-environment where carbonate formation takes place.