Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2025

Measuring Carbon-based Contaminant Mineralization Using Combined CO2 Flux and Radiocarbon Analyses
Published on: October 21, 2016
Lacustrine carbon sink: A hidden driver of the Late Cretaceous Cooling Event
Shuichang Zhang1, Huajian Wang1, Yuke Liu1
1Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Beijing 100083, China; Key Laboratory of Petroleum Geochemistry, China National Petroleum Corporation, Beijing 100083, China; National Key Laboratory for Multi-resources Collaborative Green Production of Continental Shale Oil, Daqing 163712, China.
Abstract:
Lacustrine systems since the Mesozoic have sequestered large quantities of organic carbon, which may have important value for global climate cooling, but there is still a lack of geological evidence of this sequestration. Taking the Songliao Basin in China as a case study, we elucidate the important function of lacustrine basins as sinks of a large amount of organic carbon, particularly when the contemporaneous marine sediments were poor sinks of organic carbon. Volcanic activities and orbital forcing were likely key factors influencing the water transportation between the land and oceans, as well as the alternating burial of organic carbon in the oceans and land. Microorganisms related to methane metabolism may have been highly involved in the mineralization and sequestration of lacustrine organic carbon. This study provides new insights into the coupled carbon-water cycle between the land and oceans and the influence of this process on global climate evolution.
Related Concept Videos
Global Climate Change
The Carbon Cycle
The Fossil Record
Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss
Isothermal Processes
An ideal gas can also undergo isothermal expansion or compression.
For example, consider 1 mole of an ideal gas inside an isolated cylinder at initial volume V...
The Calvin Benson Cycle

