Abstract
The dolomites (Ca Mg (CO3)2) of the Lower Magnesian Limestone (or Cadeby Formation, Upper Permian age) are believed to have been formed by evaporation of seawater and include sulphate also associated with that environment. Mineralization in the formation includes baryte (BaSO4) and galena (PbS) together with other sulphides and has been ascribed to many different modes of origin. Sulphur isotope analyses have now shown that the sulphates were derived from seawater of Upper Permian age and that sulphides in sites of former anhydrite (CaSO4) nodules were formed by bacterial reduction of sulphate. This latter point is confirmed by the carbon isotope composition of the carbonates whose oxygen isotope values indicate the possibility of admixture of meteoric water to the system. Other baryte mineralization directly involves Upper Permian seawater or evaporite sulphate, whereas smaller baryte occurrences and epigenetic galena mineralization show no such direct involvement.
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Harwood, G., Coleman, M. Isotopic evidence for UK Upper Permian mineralization by bacterial reduction of evaporites. Nature 301, 597–599 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/301597a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/301597a0
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