High‐magnesium calcite skeletons provide magnesium for burrow‐selective dolomitization in Cretaceous carbonates
Authors: Liu Hangyu , Shi Kaibo , Liu Bo , Li Yong , Li Yang , Zheng Haofu , Peng Yuting , Fu Yingxiao 
Published: October 2023

The source and pumping mechanism of magnesium play crucial roles in dolomitization. The preferential dolomitization of burrows has been extensively documented in geological archives. Although burrows are abundantly preserved in Cretaceous carbonates, burrow‐selective dolomitization is uncommon in normal salinity marine environments due to the low Mg/Ca ratio of seawater. However, burrow‐selective dolomitization occurred in the Cenomanian Rumaila Formation carbonates of the Arabian Platform providing an excellent example to further clarify the mechanism and explore other potential Mg sources of burrow‐elective dolomitization. Integrated studies of petrography, stable isotope geochemistry and laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry‐based in situ element geochemistry were conducted. It was found that the burrow‐selective dolomitization exclusively occurred in echinoderm fragment‐filled Thalassinoides networks which occurred as Glossifungites ichnofacies. Burrow dolomites showed fine to medium crystalline and planar subhedral to euhedral textures with cloudy centres and clear rims. They exhibited relatively greater Mn, lower Sr and Fe concentrations, no or very weak negative Ce anomaly and middle rare earth element‐bulge patterns, and are slightly enriched with occasionally depleted δ13C and comparable δ18O relative to the surrounding calcite matrix. The initial high‐Mg calcite echinoderm fragments in burrows have been stabilized to low‐Mg calcite, and echinoderm syntaxial overgrowth calcite cement was practically nonexistent. Echinoderm fragments were frequently replaced by dolomite in part or whole. Undolomitized echinoderms have negative Ce anomaly and seawater‐like rare earth element patterns, as well as very low Mn, Fe and relatively greater Sr concentrations. These suggest that echinoderm stabilization occurred in fluid unsaturated with respect to high‐Mg calcite driven by aerobic decomposition of organic matter in oxic seawater near the sediment–water interface, meanwhile, Mg ions were liberated into pore water. This process pre‐dated the dolomitization allowing the Mg derived from echinoderm to raise the Mg/Ca ratio of burrow interstitial water. The dolomites in burrows were generated by initial replacement and subsequent overgrowth cementation associated with bacterial sulphate reduction and methanogenesis in low‐temperature and suboxic to anoxic fluids in the near‐surface realm, and faintly recrystallized as burial depth increased. This study sheds light on the echinoderm stabilization process, links the early diagenesis of skeletons to burrow dolomitization, and proposes a conceptual model illustrating that high‐Mg calcite skeletons could act as a major Mg source for burrow‐selective dolomitization, which compensates for the deficiency of Mg in normal low Mg/Ca ratio Cretaceous seawater. This study implies the interaction effect and element cycle among components in early diagenetic systems, and verifies that high‐Mg calcite is indeed a non‐negligible potential Mg source for partial or elective dolomitization.