Biodetrital carbonates on the Adriatic continental shelf imprinted by oxidation of seeping hydrocarbons

Marco Taviani, Fulvio Franchi*, Lorenzo Angeletti, Annamaria Correggiari, Matthias Lopez-Correa, Vittorio Maselli, Claudio Mazzoli, Joern Peckmann

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The gas-productive Bonaccia area located at ca. 80-90 m below sea level offshore Ancona (Central Adriatic Sea) is site of hydrocarbon-derived carbonate production. The carbonates include large dm-sized slabs (bryozoan limestone), smaller concretionary aggregates, mudstones and pipes. The mudstones and botryoidal aragonite cements within limestones show delta C-13 values as low as -47.8%(0) VPDB, consistent with seepage of isotopically light hydrocarbons (e.g. methane). These hydrocarbon-derived carbonates commonly incorporate abundant shell remains, deriving from the prevalently coarse bioclastic-rich muddy deposits from post-glacial transgressive units. It is, therefore, hypothesized that hydrocarbonrich fluids permeated the post-glacial sediments, resulting in seafloor seeps that were inhabited by chemosymbiotic lucinid bivalves and burrowing callianassid shrimps; fossils and traces of which have been found in the Bonaccia carbonates. Microbial oxidation of the reduced compounds contained in the seep fluids led to a locally patchy carbonate cementation of the sediments at the seep sites. The pipes are interpreted as decapod burrows that subsequently served as conduits for hydrocarbon leakage. Seepage is probably still active at present as testified by gas production at the study site. Interestingly, seep carbonates exhumed by erosion served as hard substrate for fouling benthos (i.e., bryozoans, oysters and red algae) in the Holocene. The main products of the processes at the Bonaccia study site are composite bryozoan-dominated limestones, whose multi-step and complex history was unfold thank to radiocarbon dating of key components and precise stratigraphic control. The Bonaccia case-study can serve as a model for the interpretation of ancient analogs, such as bryozoan dominated limestones and mudstones of Paleozoic to Mesozoic age, which are not uncommon in the geological record. It further calls for caution in assuming that the presence of dominant macrobenthic fossil in old hydrocarbon-derived limestones implies its ecological connection to active seepage. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)511-531
Number of pages21
JournalMarine and Petroleum Geology
Volume66
Issue numberPart 3
Early online date31 Mar 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2015

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgments
We are grateful to captain, crew and colleagues onboard RV Urania during cruises AN97 and INVAS12. Stable isotope analyzes were kindly performed by M. Joachimski and D. Lutz at GeoZentrum Nordbayern (GZN), Erlangen University (FAU), Germany. We thank A. Poluzzi and A. Rosso for bryozoan determinations. G.L. Agnoli kindly provided access to his master thesis. V. Thiel and W. Michaelis kindly facilitated biomarker analyses at the Institute for Biogeochemistry and Marine Chemistry (University of Hamburg, Germany). The manuscript benefited from the insightful comments of two anonymous referees. Partial funding was provided by Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy, and by the national project Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) 2009 “Carbonate conduits linked to hydrocarbons enriched seepages” funded by the Italian Ministry of Research and Technology (MIUR). This article is also a contribution to the project Ricerca Italiana per il Mare (RITMARE) funded by MIUR and to the FP-VII-7 COCONET (Grant agreement no: 287844) of the European Community. This is ISMAR-Bologna scientific contribution number 1836.

Keywords

  • Adriatic sea
  • Quaternary
  • Cold-seep carbonates
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Eastern Mediterranean Sea
  • Authigenic carbonates
  • Methane-seeps
  • Cold seeps
  • Supply Fluctuations
  • Raman-Spectroscopy

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