How sulfate-driven anaerobic oxidation of methane affects the sulfur isotopic composition of pyrite: A SIMS study from the South China Sea

Sulfate-driven anaerobic oxidation of methane (SO4-AOM) in marine sediments commonly leads to the precipitation of pyrite. It is, however, frequently challenging to unequivocally unravel the entire history of pyritization, because of the common coexistence of SO4-AOM derived pyrite with pyrite resulting from organiclastic sulfate reduction (OSR). To better understand how SO4-AOM affects pyritization in methane-bearing sediments and how this can be identified, we applied secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) to analyze the sulfur isotope composition (δ34S) of authigenic pyrite in addition to sulfur isotope measurements of bulk sulfide and hand-picked pyrite aggregates from the two seafloor sites, HS148 and HS217, in the Shenhu seepage area, South China Sea. Authigenic, mostly tubular pyrite aggregates from these sites consist of three types of pyrite: framboids, zoned aggregates with radial overgrowths surrounding a framboidal core, and euhedral pyrite crystals. Framboids with low SIMS δ34S values (as low as − 41.6‰ at HS148, and − 38.8‰ at HS217) are dispersed throughout the cores, but are especially abundant in the shallow part of the sedimentary column (i.e. above 483 cmbsf in HS148; above 670 cmbsf in HS217). These patterns are interpreted to reflect the dominance of OSR during early diagenetic processes in the shallow sediments. With increasing depth, both δ34S values of bulk sulfide minerals and hand-picked pyrite aggregates increase sharply at 483 cmbsf in core HS148, and at 700 cmbsf in core HS217, respectively. Radial pyrite overgrowths and euhedral crystals become abundant at depth typified by high δ34S values for hand-picked pyrite. Moreover, SIMS analysis reveals an extreme variability of δ34S values for the three pyrite types on a small scale in these zones. Besides some moderately 34S enriched framboids, most of the overgrowths and euhedral crystals display extremely high SIMS δ34S values (as high as + 114.8‰ at HS148, and + 74.3‰ at HS217), representing the heaviest stable sulfur isotope composition of pyrite ever reported to the best of our knowledge. Such an abrupt and extreme increase in δ34Spyrite values with depth is best explained by an enrichment of 34S in the pool of dissolved sulfide caused by SO4-AOM in the sulfate methane transition zone (SMTZ). The increase in δ34S values from framboidal cores to overgrowth layers and euhedral crystals indicates continuous, and finally near to complete exhaustion of dissolved sulfate at the SMTZ following a Rayleigh distillation process. SO4-AOM allowed for subsequent growth of later stage pyrite over the initial framboids, part of which formed earlier and at shallower depth by OSR. The combination of a detailed petrographic study of authigenic pyrite with SIMS analysis of stable sulfur isotopes in organic-rich strata proves to be a powerful tool for reconstructing the dynamics of sulfur cycling in modern and, potentially, ancient sedimentary sequences.