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1. Lacustrine cyclicity in the early Eocene Green River Formation, Uinta Basin, Utah: Evidence from X-ray fluorescence core scanning

   https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.2020.24  

   Walters, Andrew P.; Meyers, Stephen R.; Carroll, Alan R.; Hill, Tina R.; Vanden Berg, Michael D. (April 2020, Journal of Sedimentary Research)

   null (Ed.)

   ABSTRACT The Green River Formation preserves an extraordinary archive of terrestrial paleoclimate during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO; ∼ 53–50 Ma), expressing multiple scales of sedimentary cyclicity previously interpreted to reflect annual to Milankovitch-scale forcing. Here we utilize X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning and micro X-ray fluorescence (micro-XRF) scanning in combination with radioisotopic age data to evaluate a rock core record of laminated oil shale and carbonate mudstone from Utah's Uinta Basin, with the parallel objectives of elucidating the paleo-environmental significance of the sedimentary rhythms, testing a range of forcing hypotheses, and evaluating potential linkages between high- and low-frequency forcing. This new assessment reveals that the ∼ 100-μm-scale laminae—the most fundamental rhythm of the Green River Formation—are most strongly expressed by variations in abundance of iron and sulfur. We propose that these variations reflect changes in redox state, consistent with annual stratification of the lake. In contrast to previous studies, no support was found for ENSO or sunspot cycles. However, millimeter- to centimeter-scale rhythms—temporally constrained to the decadal to centennial scale—are strongly expressed as alternations in the abundance of silicate- versus carbonate-associated elements (e.g., Al and Si vs. Ca), suggesting changes in precipitation and sediment delivery to the paleo-lake. Variations also occur at the meter scale, defining an approximate 4 m cycle interpreted to reflect precession. We also identify punctuated intervals, associated principally with one phase of the proposed precession cycle, where Si disconnects from the silicate input. We propose an alternative authigenic or biogenic Si source for these intervals, which reflects periods of enhanced productivity. This result reveals how long-term astronomical forcings can influence short-term processes, yielding insight into decadal- to millennial-scale terrestrial climate change in the Eocene greenhouse earth. 

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2. CONTINENTAL RESPONSES TO THE EARLY EOCENE CLIMATIC OPTIMUM: A HIGH-RESOLUTION PERSPECTIVE FROM THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION USING XRF CORE SCANNING

   https://doi.org/10.1130/abs/2019AM-339584  

   Walters, Andrew P; Meyers, Stephen R; Carroll, Alan R; Klonowski, Elizabeth; Lowenstein, Tim K; Paperini, Matteo (September 2019, Geological Society of America)

   The Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (~53-50 Ma) represents the most recent episode of sustained greenhouse climate, during which the deep oceans were as much as 12°C warmer than today. The lacustrine Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation (Wyoming, USA) is one of the premier locations to study this period of global warmth due to its rich terrestrial archive of climate dynamics, biology, and geomorphology. Using radioisotopic geochronology, cyclostratigraphy, sedimentology, and geochemistry, previous studies have leveraged this extensive record to evaluate the ancient lake system’s temporal evolution and response to climate. Much prior work on Green River Formation cyclostratigraphy, including that of Alfred G. Fischer, has focused on the evaluation of oil yield, a measure of organic richness. In this study, X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning of a basin center core, Solvay S-34-1, is used to produce a high resolution (5mm), continuous, multi-proxy elemental record of the complete Wilkins Peak Member, spanning 240 meters. This new geochemical assessment is a component of a larger multidisciplinary investigation that that is underway, including new magnetostratigraphic and radioisotopic geochronology. Elemental abundances for a range of measured elements, such as Si, S, Cl, K, Ca, Ti, Fe, Zn, Br, and Rb, are interpreted in terms of evaporitic, siliciclastic, and redox-sensitive sedimentation, and show variable responses at specific Milankovitch (eccentricity, obliquity, precession) and sub-Milankovitch time scales. Using this long high-resolution geochemical dataset of the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, we consider potential linkages between Milankovitch forcing and sub-Milankovitch forcing, and plausible non-linear transfer functions that translate the astronomical insolation signal into the stratigraphic archive. 

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3. PALEOCLIMATE RECORDS FROM EVAPORITES IN THE EOCENE GREEN RIVER FORMATION

   https://doi.org/10.1130/abs/2022AM-383105  

   Lowenstein, Tim; Arnuk, William; Klonowski, Elizabeth; Jagniecki, Elliot; Demicco, Robert V (January 2022, Geological Society of America)

   Lacustrine evaporites have potential to document ancient terrestrial climates, including temperatures and their seasonal variations, and atmospheric pCO2. The sodium carbonate mineral nahcolite (NaHCO3) in the early Eocene Parachute Creek Member, Green River Formation, Piceance subbasin, indicates elevated pCO2 concentrations (> 680 ppm) in the water column and in the atmosphere if in contact with brine. These data support a causal connection between elevated atmospheric pCO2 and global warmth during the early Eocene Climatic Optimum. Trona (Na2CO3⋅NaHCO3⋅2H2O), not nahcolite, is the dominant sodium carbonate mineral in the coeval Wilkins Peak Member in the Bridger subbasin, which may be explained by interbasin variations in (1) brine chemistry, (2) temperature, and (3) pCO2. These interpretations are based on equilibrium thermodynamics and simulations that evaporate lake water, but they ignore seasonal changes in water column temperature and pCO2. Winter cooling, rather than evaporative concentration, best explains the fine-scale alternations of nahcolite, halite (NaCl), and nahcolite + halite in the Parachute Creek Member. Simulated evaporation of alkaline source waters from the paleo Aspen River at temperatures between 15⁰ and 27⁰ C and pCO2 at or below 1200 ppm produces the observed mineral sequence in the Wilkins Peak Member: gaylussite (Na2CO3⋅CaCO3⋅5H2O) at temperatures < 27⁰ C and pirssonite (Na2CO3⋅CaCO3⋅2H2O) > 27⁰ C (both now replaced by shortite Na2CO3·2CaCO3), then northupite (Na3Mg(CO3)2Cl), trona, and halite. The challenge of determining paleo-lake temperatures in the Bridger and Piceance subbasins using microthermometry has now been solved using femtosecond lasers that promote nucleation of vapor bubbles in brine inclusions without deforming the halite host crystal. This method shows general agreement with thermodynamic-based calculations and will be used to document mean annual temperatures in the Greater Green River Basin. 

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4. Data report: X-ray fluorescence scanning of sediment cores, IODP Expedition 390/393 Site U1557, South Atlantic Transect

   https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.390393.201.2024  

   Lowery, C.M.; Amadori, C.; Borrelli, C.; Christeson, G.L.; Estes, E.R.; Guertin, L.; Hertzberg, J.; Kaplan, M.R.; Koorapati, R.K.; Lam, A.R.; et al (April 2024, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition reports)

   Site U1557 is the deepest and one of the oldest sites drilled during International Ocean Discovery Program Expeditions 390C, 395E, 390, and 393 on the South Atlantic Transect. It differs from the nearby Site U1556, which also sits on early Paleocene crust, by its stratigraphically expanded Paleocene–Eocene section. Here, we present the results of programmatic X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning of the entire thickness of the sedimentary section at Site U1557. We find a major shift in XRF geochemistry at the boundary between Lithologic Units I and II, coincident with a shift in spectral gamma ray and magnetic susceptibility, as well as a shift from alternating pelagic carbonate and pelagic clay in Unit I to pelagic carbonate in Unit II. Within Unit I, shifts in major elemental composition of core material track alternations between carbonate-rich and clay-rich intervals. 

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5. ASSESSMENT OF BASIN EVOLUTION FROM INTEGRATED CHEMICAL MODELS AND LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE LOWER WILKINS PEAK MEMBER OF THE GREEN RIVER FORMATION, SOUTHWEST WYOMING, USA

   ARNUK, W; LOWENSTEIN, TK; WALTERS, A P; CARROLL, A R; SMITH, M E (October 2023, Geological Society of America)

   Chemical sediments from the Early Eocene Green River Formation can be used for assessing hydroclimate and basin evolution during their deposition. The Wilkins Peak Member (WPM) of the Green River Formation contains a relatively continuous record of perennial closed-basin saline lake deposition in the Bridger Basin, southwest Wyoming, from approximately 51.6 to 49.8 Ma. The volumes and paragenesis of authigenic chemical sediments in the WPM are intrinsically related to the chemical evolution of basin brines. The geographic distribution of those chemical sediments across the Bridger Basin relates to the syn- and post-depositional tectonic history of the basin. In this study, we integrated thermodynamic modeling of chemical evolution of lake brines with chemostratigraphic and lithostratigraphic interpretations of the basin-center Solvay S-34-1 core to evaluate physical and chemical changes to and within ancient Lake Gosiute during the Early Eocene. Fine-scale X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning along the length of the core provides a high-resolution chemical stratigraphy of the WPM. Thermodynamic modeling of the evaporation of hypothetical inflow waters and lake brines yield predicted sequences of evaporite minerals, allowing estimation of the salinities and evaporated volumes of water required to reach saturation with respect to observed mineral deposits from the basin. The spatial distributions of bedded evaporites allow us to investigate tectonic changes to the basin during and after the deposition of the WPM. Here, we integrate these data to interpret changes in lake-level, salinity, and hydroclimate of ancient Lake Gosiute during the Early Eocene. 

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