Radiocarbon ages of microcrystalline authigenic carbonate in Lake Neusiedl (Austria) suggest millennial-scale growth of Mg-calcite and protodolomite

Abstract

Authigenic Mg-calcite and dolomite are frequently observed in restricted, evaporative environments, such as lagoon or lake systems, but their formation is difficult to capture due to slow growth rates. Lake Neusiedl, an alkaline and subhaline lake with a mean water depth of 0.7 m in Austria, offers a natural system to study the precipitation of Ca-Mg-carbonate phases, which occur as fine-grained, unconsolidated and largely homogenized mud. To elucidate the timing and formation mechanisms of these authigenic carbonate phases, the mineralogical and isotopic composition and radiocarbon age of different sediment grain-size fractions from <0.2 to >3.0 μm were analysed. X-ray diffraction analyses show two broad peaks of Mg-calcite and protodolomite (lacking ordering peaks), suggesting that the carbonates are authigenic rather than detrital in origin. Calibrated carbon-14 ages range between 200 cal yr BP and 3700 cal yr BP. The linear correlation of age and grain size suggests a very slow growth rate of single crystals of 0.23 to 0.60 μm/ka. These rates suggest an extremely slow sedimentation rate in a shallow lake that existed during most of the Holocene. The higher abundance of protodolomite in older grain fractions, in contrast to the presence of high-Mg calcite in the youngest fractions, suggests a growth succession where high-Mg calcite develops first and subsequently transforms into protodolomite. Much higher ages of 6 cal ka BP to 15 cal ka BP are measured in carbonates of lake deposits exposed on land, in a section northwest of the recent lake, suggesting a growth rate of those carbonate minerals of 0.13 μm/ka. These time constraints further suggest that some carbonate grains could already have nucleated from lake water before or during the last glacial maximum, although under slightly different hydrochemical conditions.