FOR 1644: CHARON: Marine Carbonate Archives: Controls on Carbonate Precipitation and Pathways of Diagenetic Alteration

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The DFG Forschergruppe (FOR) 1644 "CHARON" merges the skills of an interdisciplinary group of experts from various disciplines in Earth Sciences in Germany and neighbouring countries. Research fields dealt with range from marine geology, carbonate sedimentology and stratigraphy, (isotope) geochemistry, petrology, material research, petrophysics, palaeontology to numerical approaches (reactive transport modelling) and geomicrobiology. Here, we apply for phase II (2016-2019) and propose eight interconnected projects (TP) guided and supported by a coordination project (ZP0) at Bochum, Germany. TP1/Graz, Austria is submitted to both, DFG and the Austrian FWF and - if successful - will be financed by FWF according to the DACH agreement. Our aim is to continue the very successful work as performed during phase I with focus on carbonate nucleation, precipitation, and growth and the subsequent alteration of abiogenic and biogenic carbonates along diagenetic pathways. The overarching aim is to provide the community with a quantitative and process-oriented understanding of Recent to Archean carbonate archives. The importance of this research results from the fact that marine carbonates are the most important rock type for reconstructing Earth System evolution with respect to the physical, chemical, and biological evolution of the ocean as well as changes in atmospheric composition and climate dynamics. Building on phase I, five out of eight proposals will move from experimental approaches and testing to phase II application of specific proxy systems to naturally altered carbonate archives. In addition to biogenic and abiogenic carbonates (aragonite, calcite, amorphous carbonate), forming the main focus of phase I, we now add fine-grained carbonate sediments and sedimentary rocks to our study materials. Moreover, the PI's and students of three projects (TP1, 2, 5) focus on dolomites and dolomitized limestones, representing complex but common but complex archives of planet Earth. Project TP7/Göttingen contributes expert knowledge in the field of geomicrobiology and bridges the gap between thermodynamics, kinetics, and metabolic processes in the early diagenetic realm. An important strength of CHARON lies in the very close links between experimental work and field studies. Particularly, the application of sophisticated hydrothermal alteration experiments will be continued albeit with adapted and refined research questions. In combination, we cover all diagenetic domains spanning from the earlies diagenetic alteration in the presence to marine porewaters to the limits of the burial diagenetic realm into the anchimetamorphic domain. If funded, the outcome of this collaborative research project will represent a critical advance in carbonate research in general.