Sediments, marine

Like soil, sediment contains three phases, and interactions among these phases can alter the nature of sediments through time. 

Sediment type %CaCO % clastic and clayey material % amorphous silica % pelagic sed. Composition 

Detrital or epiclastic 30 50 Denudation products of continental rocks 

Biogenic A. Calcareous B. Siliceous 30 30 48 Foraminifera, coccoliths, calcareous algae, molluscs, bryozoa, and corals 14 Diatoms and radiolaria 

Chemogenic Volcanogenic Polygenic 10 50 10 Iron-manganese nodules, glauconite, phosphorite, nodules, phUlipsite, palagonite, celestobarite, and evaporites Pyroclastic material 38 Red clay 

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H. L. Windom, "Lithogenous Matedal in Marine Sediments," Chemical Oceanography, Academic Press, Inc., New York, 1976. 

Marine sediments can be both sources and sinks for U. Uranium has repeatedly been shown to be scavenged from solution into reducing sediments. 

Joly observed elevated "Ra activities in deep-sea sediments that he attributed to water column scavenging and removal processes. This hypothesis was later challenged with the hrst seawater °Th measurements (parent of "Ra), and these new results conhrmed that radium was instead actively migrating across the marine sediment-water interface. This seabed source stimulated much activity to use radium as a tracer for ocean circulation. Unfortunately, the utility of Ra as a deep ocean circulation tracer never came to full fruition as biological cycling has been repeatedly shown to have a strong and unpredictable effect on the vertical distribution of this isotope. 

Most petroleum scientists believe that crude oil and natural gas formed over millions to tens of millions of years through the decomposition of organic matter buried by sediments. Generally, marine sediments have led to oil and gas, while freshwater... 

The formation and dissolution of CaCOa in the ocean plays a significant role in all of these effects (34)- CaCOa is produced by marine organisms at a rate several times the supply rate of CaCOa to the sea from rivers. Thus, for the loss of CaCOa to sediments to match the supply from rivers, most of the CaCOa formed must be redissolved. The balance is maintained through changes in the [COa] content of the deep sea. A lowering of the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere and ocean, for example by increased new production, raises the [COa] ion content of sea water. This in turn creates a mismatch between CaCOa burial and CaCOa supply. CaCOa accumulates faster than it is supplied to the sea. This burial of excess CaCOa in marine sediments draws down the [COa] - concentration of sea water toward the value required for balance between CaCOa loss and gain. In this way, the ocean compensates for organic removal. As a consequence of this compensation process, the CO2 content of the atmosphere would rise back toward its initial value. 

Table 3-1 Electron acceptors that are used in the biodegradation of organic material in marine sediments. More on the chemistry of these processes is presented in Chapters 8 and 16...

The case of bacterial reduction of sulfate to sulfide described by Berner (1984) provides a useful example. The dependence of sulfate reduction on sulfate concentration is shown in Fig. 5-4. Here we see that for [SO ] < 5 mM the rate is a linear function of sulfate concentration but for [SO4 ] > 10 itiM the rate is reasonably independent of sulfate concentration. The sulfate concentration in the ocean is about 28 mM and thus in shallow marine sediments the reduction rate does not depend on sulfate concentration. (The rate does depend on the concentration of organisms and the concentration of other necessary reactants - organic carbon in this case.) In freshwaters the sulfate concentration is... 

Table 8-6 Material-genetic classification of marine sediments"...

In marine sediments, usually only the uppermost layer of the sediment exhibits oxidizing conditions while the rest is reduced. The thickness of the oxidized layer and the reducing capacity of the sediment below depend on ... 

The annual primary production of organic carbon through photosynthesis is on the order of 70 Pg/yr. The major part of this carbon is decomposed or respired in a process that also involves the biogeochemical transformation of nitrogen, sulfur, and many other elements. Only a small part of the annual primary production of organic carbon escapes decomposition and is buried in marine sediments. On average. 

Presley, B. J. (1969). Chemistry of interstitial water from marine sediments. Ph.D. thesis, Univ. Calif., Los Angeles. 

The main mechanism for removal of organic carbon from the ocean is burial in sediments. This flux is equal to the average global sedimentation rate for marine sediments times their weight percent organic carbon. The total sink... 

As a starting point we can view the ocean as one large reservoir to which materials are continuously added and removed (Fig. 10-17). The major sources of material include rivers and winds, which carry dissolved and particulate materials from the continents to the sea. The major removal process is the formation of marine sediments both by settling of particles through the water column as well as by precipitation of insoluble solid phases. For many ele-... 

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