Redox condition of the late Neoproterozoic pelagic deep ocean: ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer analyses of pelagic mudstones in the Ediacaran accretionary complex, Wales, UK

We report geological and geochemical analysis of Neoproterozoic pelagic deep-sea mudstones in an accretionary complex in Lleyn, Wales, UK. Ocean plate stratigraphy at Porth Felen, NW Lleyn, consists of mid-ocean ridge basalt (>4 m), bedded dolostone (2 m), black mudstone (5 m), hemipelagic siliceous mudstone (1 m,) and turbiditic sandstone (15 m), in ascending order. The absence of terrigenous clastics confirms that the black and siliceous mudstone was deposited in a pelagic deep-sea. Based on the youngest U-Pb age (564 Ma) of detrital zircons separated from overlying sandstone, the deep-sea black mudstone was deposited in the late Ediacaran. The 5 m-thick black mudstone contains the following distinctive lithologies: (i) black mudstone with thin pyritic layers (0.8 m), (ii) alternation of black mudstone and gray/dark gray siliceous mudstone (2.4 m), (iii) thinly-laminated dark gray shale (1 m), and (iv) black mudstone with thin pyritic layers (1 m). ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy confirms that these black mudstones contain pyrite without hematite. In contrast, red bedded claystones (no younger than 542 Ma) in the neighboring Braich section contain hematite as their main iron mineral. These deep-sea mudstones in the Lleyn Peninsula record a change of redox condition on the pelagic deep-sea floor during the Ediacaran. The black mudstone at Porth Felen shows that deep-sea anoxia existed in the late Ediacaran. The eventual change from a reducing to an oxidizing deep-sea environment likely occurred in the late Ediacaran (ca. 564-542 Ma).