Extraction of Nd isotopes from bulk deep sea sediments for paleoceanographic studies on Cenozoic time scales

• Published in: Chemical geology 2010-01, Vol.269 (3), p.414-431
• Main Authors: Martin, Ellen E., Blair, Susanna W., Kamenov, George D., Scher, Howie D., Bourbon, Elodie, Basak, Chandranath, Newkirk, Derrick N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cleaning; Deep sea; Extraction; Ferromanganese oxides; Fish; Fish teeth; Isotopes; Nd isotopes; Neodymium; Paleoceanography; Sea water; Sediments; Teeth
• ISSN: 0009-2541; 1872-6836
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2009.10.016

Nd isotopes preserved in fossil fish teeth and ferromanganese crusts have become a common tool for tracking variations in water mass composition and circulation through time. Studies of Nd isotopes extracted from Pleistocene to Holocene bulk sediments using hydroxylamine hydrochloride (HH) solution yield high resolution records of Nd isotopes that can be interpreted in terms of deep water circulation, but concerns about diagenesis and potential contamination of the seawater signal limit application of this technique to geologically young samples. In this study we demonstrate that Nd extracted from the > 63 μm, decarbonated fraction of older Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) sediments using a 0.02 M HH solution produces Nd isotopic ratios that are within error of values from cleaned fossil fish teeth collected from the same samples, indicating that the HH-extractions are robust recorders of deep sea Nd isotopes. This excellent correlation was achieved for 94 paired fish teeth and HH-extraction samples ranging in age from the Miocene to Cretaceous, distributed throughout the north, tropical and south Atlantic, and composed of a range of lithologies including carbonate-rich oozes/chalks and black shales. The strong Nd signal recovered from Cretaceous anoxic black shale sequences is unlikely to be associated with ferromanganese oxide coatings, but may be derived from abundant phosphatic fish teeth and debris or organic matter in these samples. In contrast to the deep water Nd isotopic signal, Sr isotopes from HH-extractions are often offset from seawater values, suggesting that evaluation of Sr isotopes is a conservative test for the integrity of Nd isotopes in the HH fraction. However, rare earth elements (REE) from the HH-extractions and fish teeth produce distinctive middle REE bulge patterns that may prove useful for evaluating whether the Nd isotopic signal represents uncontaminated seawater. Alternatively, a few paired HH-extraction and cleaned fish teeth samples from each site of interest can be used to verify the seawater composition of the HH-extractions. The similarity between isotopic values for the HH-extraction and fish teeth illustrates that the extensive cleaning protocol applied to fish teeth samples is not necessary in typical, carbonate-rich, deep sea sediments.