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Ancient Seep Carbonates: From Outcrop Appearance to Microscopic Petrography

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Ancient Hydrocarbon Seeps

Part of the book series: Topics in Geobiology ((TGBI,volume 53))

Abstract

Precipitation of cements forming methane-derived carbonates is inherent to marine hydrocarbon seep environments. Carbonate deposits enriched in methanogenic carbon are found in ancient rock formations as old as the Silurian. In contrast to their recent equivalents, they are mostly found on land in uplifted ancient sedimentary formations. Unlike their extant equivalents, ancient seeps are no longer active and have been frequently subjected to burial which has not yet affected recent seeps. Furthermore, aragonite forming bulk of extant seep carbonates is largely recrystallized into calcite in their ancient equivalents. Some exposures of fossil rock formations offer a three-dimensional view of plumbing system supplying ancient seeps, but this is largely hidden below the seabed where extant seeps are located.

Despite distinct approaches required by occurrence and history of ancient and extant seep deposits, the petrographic features characterizing them are similar. Both are composed of microcrystalline carbonates with a variable amount of dispersed pyrite. Sparry cements, especially botryoidal aragonite and calcite, are the hallmark of seep deposits and are one of the first features noticed by any researcher. These features of seep carbonate remained virtually unchanged throughout 420 Ma of their known history and allow for easy recognition of such carbonates in the fossil record.

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Acknowledgments

I am very thankful to editors Andrzej Kaim (Institute of Paleobiology PAS, Poland), J. Kirk Cochran (Stony Brook University, New York, USA), and Neil H. Landman (American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA) for an opportunity to contribute to this book. I would like also to thank Andrzej Kaim for donating whole rock specimens and photos from various seep deposits around the world, which I used during the preparation of this chapter. Many fruitful discussions in the office and in the field with Kazutaka Amano (Joetsu University of Education, Joetsu, Japan), Michał Jakubowicz (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland), Robert G. Jenkins (Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan), Andrzej Kaim, Steffen Kiel (Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden), and Crispin T.S. Little (University of Leeds, Leeds, UK) are sincerely acknowledged. Special thanks goes to referees J. Kirk Cochran and Jennifer Zwicker (University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria) for their thorough reviews which helped substantially improve this contribution.

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  1. Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

    Krzysztof Hryniewicz

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  1. Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warszawa, Poland

    Andrzej Kaim

  2. School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, USA

    J. Kirk Cochran

  3. Department of Invertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA

    Neil H. Landman

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Hryniewicz, K. (2022). Ancient Seep Carbonates: From Outcrop Appearance to Microscopic Petrography. In: Kaim, A., Cochran, J.K., Landman, N.H. (eds) Ancient Hydrocarbon Seeps. Topics in Geobiology, vol 53. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05623-9_3

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