Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 20 November 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5393, pp. 1459 - 1462
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5393.1459
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Research Articles

Sulfur Isotopic Composition of Cenozoic Seawater Sulfate

Adina Paytan, * Miriam Kastner, Douglas Campbell, Mark H. Thiemens

A continuous seawater sulfate sulfur isotope curve for the Cenozoic with a resolution of ~1 million years was generated using marine barite. The sulfur isotopic composition decreased from 19 to 17 per mil between 65 and 55 million years ago, increased abruptly from 17 to 22 per mil between 55 and 45 million years ago, remained nearly constant from 35 to ~2 million years ago, and has decreased by 0.8 per mil during the past 2 million years. A comparison between seawater sulfate and marine carbonate carbon isotope records reveals no clear systematic coupling between the sulfur and carbon cycles over one to several millions of years, indicating that changes in the burial rate of pyrite sulfur and organic carbon did not singularly control the atmospheric oxygen content over short time intervals in the Cenozoic. This finding has implications for the modeling of controls on atmospheric oxygen concentration.

A. Paytan, M. Kastner, and D. Campbell are in the Geosciences Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. M. H. Thiemens is in the Chemistry Department, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: apaytan{at}ucsd.edu

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Sulphur isotopic composition of K Mg sulphates of the Miocene evaporites of the Carpathian Foredeep, Ukraine.
S. Hryniv, J. Parafiniuk, and T. M. Peryt (2007)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 285, 265-273
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Sea level, sediments and the composition of seawater.
H. D. Holland (2005)
Am J Sci 305, 220-239
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Seawater Sulfur Isotope Fluctuations in the Cretaceous.
A. Paytan, M. Kastner, D. Campbell, and M. H. Thiemens (2004)
Science 304, 1663-1665
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Oxygen Isotope Constraints on the Sulfur Cycle over the Past 10 Million Years.
A. V. Turchyn and D. P. Schrag (2004)
Science 303, 2004-2007
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Formation of modern and Paleozoic stratiform barite at cold methane seeps on continental margins.
(2003)
Geology 31, 897-900
Sr, S, and OSO4 Isotopes and the Depositional Environments of the Upper Miocene Evaporites, Spain.
(2003)
Journal of Sedimentary Research 73, 444-450
Cretaceous and Cenozoic evolution of seawater composition, atmospheric O2 and CO2: A model perspective.
K. W. Hansen and K. Wallmann (2003)
Am J Sci 303, 94-148
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Origin of marine barite deposits: Sr and S isotope characterization.
(2002)
Geology 30, 747-750
Chemostratigraphy of the Jurassic System: applications, limitations and implications for palaeoceanography.
H. C. Jenkyns, H. C. Jenkyns, C. E. Jones, D. R. GrOcke, S. P. Hesselbo, and D. N. Parkinson (2002)
Journal of the Geological Society 159, 351-378
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Questions Regarding Precambrian Sulfur Isotope Fractionation.
H. Ohmoto, K. E. Yamaguchi, S. Ono, J. Farquhar, H. Bao, M. H. Thiemens, G. Hu, and D. Rumble III (2001)
Science 292, 1959a-1959
   Full Text »    PDF »
Atmospheric Influence of Earth's Earliest Sulfur Cycle.
J. Farquhar, H. Bao, and M. Thiemens (2000)
Science 289, 756-758
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Isotope Fractionation and Atmospheric Oxygen: Implications for Phanerozoic O2 Evolution.
R. A. Berner, S. T. Petsch, J. A. Lake, D. J. Beerling, B. N. Popp, R. S. Lane, E. A. Laws, M. B. Westley, N. Cassar, F. I. Woodward, et al. (2000)
Science 287, 1630-1633
   Abstract »    Full Text »
Oceanic minerals: Their origin, nature of their environment, and significance.
M. Kastner (1999)
PNAS 96, 3380-3387
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)