Eline J. Feenstra

Université de Fribourg · Department of Geosciences

The 4D-DIAGENESIS@MOUND project aims to decipher the temporal and spatial variability of diagenesis in carbonate mounds influenced by a shallow sulphate-methane transition zone (SMTZ). In first instance the spatial variation will be deciphered through the detailed study of gravity cores taken along a core transect on one specific carbonate mound on Pen Duick Escarpment in the Gulf of Cadiz. Additional core sections on the top of carbonate mounds in the Melilla Mound Field in the Alboran Sea will be targeted for the quantification of diagenetic imprints (especially coral dissolution and authigenic microbial-induced carbonate precipitation). The cores will become available within the framework of the EuroFLEETS campaign ‘The Mediterranean-Atlantic Gateway Code: The Late Pleistocene Carbonate Mound Record’ which will take place in June 2013 aboard the R/V Marion Dufresne. During a second phase of the project, carbonate mound sediments will be brought within a bioreactor to monitor dissolution and precipitation of mineral phases through time under constrained lab-conditions. Special attention will be paid to the development of an in-house bioreactor simulating the environment wherein carbonate mound systems thrive, as well as to the 3D visualization of the diagenetic phases within mound sediments by means of multi-scaled nanotomography.