Seawater-buffered diagenesis, destruction of carbon isotope excursions, and the composition of DIC in Neoproterozoic oceans

Significance Carbonate sediments of Neoproterozoic age exhibit large secular excursions of carbon isotope composition outside the range of modern seawater dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), but their origins are controversial. We show that in a Neoproterozoic carbonate platform in Namibia, such excursions disappear on the flanks of the platform, where compositions are more compatible with modern seawater. We attribute the observed spatial variation to early fluid-buffered alteration on the flanks of the platform, where seawater invaded the sediment in response to geothermal porewater convection. Accordingly, the isotope excursions in the platform interior are decoupled from open-ocean DIC, which remained close to the modern range. Our interpretation is testable and, if confirmed, has important ramifications for the origins of ancient carbon isotope excursions.