Dr. Page Quinton - SUNY Potsdam
Carbon isotopes in shallow epicontinental seas: lessons from the Late Ordovician
Abstract:
Carbon isotopic ratios recorded in marine carbonates are a useful tool for identifying ancient perturbations in the global carbon cycle and are widely used in chemostratigraphic and paleoclimatic studies. These applications work because the net burial/oxidation of organic carbon shifts the carbon isotopic composition of the surface ocean, and these changes can be preserved in marine carbonates. However, records from rocks deposited in epeiric seas present challenges for these types of applications. In particular, net primary productivity, terrestrial organic matter, freshwater input, meteoric diagenesis, and carbonate precipitation/weathering operating at local and regional scales can influence recorded carbon isotopic values in these shallow water settings. We will examine the Late Ordovician carbon isotopic record of eastern North America to discuss some of these effects and I will propose a sequence stratigraphic model for predicting when carbon isotopic records have been influenced by these local/regional process.
BIO:
Dr. Page Quinton received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri in 2016 and now is an Assistant Professor of Geology at SUNY Potsdam. Her research focuses on understanding and documenting climate change in the geologic past. By embracing a multidisciplinary approach using stable isotope geochemistry (oxygen and carbon), micropaleontology, and sedimentology she attempts to relate changes in global climate to perturbations in the global carbon cycle and major mass extinction events in deep time intervals (e.g. the Ordovician, Permian-Triassic boundary, and Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary).