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Science 7 April 1989:
Vol. 244. no. 4900, pp. 53 - 56
DOI: 10.1126/science.244.4900.53
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Articles

Cretaceous Cold-Seep Communities and Methane-Derived Carbonates in the Canadian Arctic

BENOIT BEAUCHAMP 1, J. CHRISTOPHER HARRISON 1, WALTER W. NASSICHUK 1, H. ROY KROUSE 2, and LESLIE S. ELIUK 3

1 Geological Survey of Canada, 3303 33rd Street Northwest, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2L 2A7.
2 Department of Physics, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4.
3 Shell Canada Limited, Box 100, Station M, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 2H5.

Lower Cretaceous cold-seep fossil assemblages have been found in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Serpulid worm tubes and bivalves are most abundant in these communities; in contrast, fossils are scarce in the surrounding strata. The fossils are contained in an isotopically light (dgr13C = -25 to -50 per mil) carbonate rock groundmass that is interpreted to have formed from bacterial oxidation of methane. The rocks were deposited at intermediate depth (le400 meters) in a cold marine environment; nearby normal faults may have provided a conduit for seeping methane and hydrogen sulfide needed to fuel chemosynthetic bacteria, and in turn, the higher life forms.

Submitted on October 13, 1988
Accepted on February 3, 1989


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Palaeoecological models, non-uniformitarianism, and tracking the changing ecology of the past.
D. J. Bottjer, K. A. Campbell, J. K. Schubert, and M. L. Droser (1995)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 83, 7-26
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