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Geochemical behavior of rare elements in Paleogene saline lake sediments of the Qaidam Basin, NE Tibetan Plateau

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Abstract

The Paleogene paleo-lake in the Qaidam Basin on NE Tibetan Plateau is one of the largest perennial inland saline lakes in China. Forty-nine samples collected from four depositional environments (shallow lake, lakeshore, sandy mudflat and gypsiferous mudflat) have been tested for major, trace and rare earth elements to study the geochemical behavior of rare elements (including trace and rare earth elements) in sediments of saline lakes. Based on correlation degrees and relationships with major elements, six categories of rare elements in the Qaidam saline lake have been recognized: (1) REE-type (REEs, Nb, Ta, Ge, and Y), (2) nutrient-type (Zn), (3) scavenged-type (Cr, Ga, Sc, and V), (4) conservative-type (Be, Rb, Th, Ni, Cs, and Li), (5) grained-type (Zr and Hf), and (6) independent-type (U, Pb, Co, Cu, Sr, and Ba). Contents of rare elements in saline lakes are comprehensively controlled by detritus inputs, grain size, adsorption by or co-precipitation with clay particles, and biological activities. However, these factors influence the behavior of rare elements of different categories to different degrees. The presence of salts has a diluting effect to all the rare elements except Sr and Ba. The ratio Sr/Ba is proved to be a good indicator of paleosalinity in saline sediments. More depletion of HREEs and relative enrichment of Co, Ni, and Cu have been observed in pure anhydrite samples. The conservative- and independent-type elements are more likely to be enriched in saline lake centers during the process of evaporation.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge continuous support for field work and core observation from Qinghai Oil Company of PetroChina. We thank Jianqi Wang, Ye Liu and Huadong Gong in State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics for their help in sample preparation and tests. This work is co-supported by a National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41330315) and an internal project of the Qinghai Oil Company.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an, 710069, Shaanxi, China

    Pei Guo, Chiyang Liu & Bei Li

  2. Qinghai Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Dunhuang, 736202, Gansu, China

    Peng Wang, Ke Wang & Haili Yuan

Authors
  1. Pei Guo
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  2. Chiyang Liu
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  3. Peng Wang
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  4. Ke Wang
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Correspondence to Pei Guo or Chiyang Liu.

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Major, trace and rare earth element results of 49 samples from the Paleogene strata of the Qaidam Basin. (XLSX 50 kb)

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Guo, P., Liu, C., Wang, P. et al. Geochemical behavior of rare elements in Paleogene saline lake sediments of the Qaidam Basin, NE Tibetan Plateau. Carbonates Evaporites 34, 359–372 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-017-0394-x

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