Browsing by Subject "Echinoderm"

In Estonia and Gotland, Sweden Ordovician and Silurian rocks can be found in exposed outcrops, they have been studied for the past years to create a better understanding of the biological and geological events that transpire during the Ordovician and Silurian. Finland is not known to have sedimentary fossiliferous limestones, but the Åland Islands is one of the places where Ordovician and Silurian erratic limestones can be found. The limestones were glacially transported from the Bothnia Sea area. The erratic limestones found in the Åland Islands have not been studied and have not been dated. The goal of this research is to reconstruct the depositional age of the erratic crinoidal limestone from the Åland Islands through 13C, 87Sr/86Sr, and identification of microfossil proxies. We used in situ strontium isotope analysis by MC-ICP-MS and 13C analysis in different materials of the sample, the materials analyzed were cement, sediment matrix, and skeletal material (crinoid stem). The samples were sent to experts for microfossil identification. The Åland samples were compared with known samples from Estonia and Gotland. The samples from Niibi Estonia showed the most petrographical similarities and were also analyzed for strontium and carbon isotopes. The strontium analysis showed that the material had a different strontium signal, which then contributed to diagenetic alteration due to rubidium-87. It was observed that the sediment matrix was the most susceptible to any diagenetic alteration followed by the skeletal material and then the cement. There were conodonts found in the Åland samples that indicated that the erratic limestone is from the lower Haljala Regional Stage, Sandbian, Late Ordovician.