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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biogeochemistry
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1466216
This article is part of the Research Topic Quantitative Reconstruction of Marine Carbonate Production: From Modern to Deep-Time Oceans View all 3 articles

Records of Burdigalian sea level and paleoclimate in the Maldives carbonate system

Provisionally accepted
Feng Wu Feng Wu 1,2*Zhimin Jian Zhimin Jian 1Or M. Bialik Or M. Bialik 3,4
  • 1 Tongji University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 2 Hohai University, Nanjing, China
  • 3 University of Münster, Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
  • 4 University of Haifa, Haifa, Haifa, Israel

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Tropical carbonate systems are valuable archives of paleoenvironments, as the carbonate growth is intimately affected by water depth and climatic conditions. Geochemical data from the Burdigalian interval in IODP Site U1468 in the Maldives, northern Indian Ocean, were integrated with sedimentological and paleontological data for a more detailed reconstruction of depositional history. Generally, the Sr/Ca values of slope sediments record highstand progradation in both sequence unit and whole Burdigalian interval, while the absence of higher Sr/Ca ratio close to the sequence boundary during the early Burdigalian could be related to the erosion of deeper-water sediments due to the activity of bottom current. From 20.5 to 19.1 Ma and from 17.9 to 17.2 Ma, nutrient level and productivity were moderately elevated due to the terrigenous input by the intensified South Asian Proto-Monsoon, which also helped cause more reducing conditions in the distal slope. Moreover, increased nutrient level facilitated the growths of calcareous algae and sponges, while it was not favorable for coral development. The elevated nutrient level, higher sea level, and monsoon-induced current contributed to the backstepping of the outer margin during the late Burdigalian. Our study shows an example on how a tropical carbonate platform evolved in response to the interplay of sea-level and paleoclimatic conditions. Findings are expected to be applicable to other tropical carbonate platforms.

    Keywords: Carbonate system, tropical area, Sea level, paleoclimate, Maldives, Burdigalian

    Received: 17 Jul 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wu, Jian and Bialik. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Feng Wu, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, Shanghai Municipality, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.