Person:
Rodríguez Berriguete, Álvaro

Loading...
Profile Picture
First Name
Álvaro
Last Name
Rodríguez Berriguete
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Ciencias Geológicas
Department
Mineralogía y Petrología
Area
Petrología y Geoquímica
Identifiers
UCM identifierORCIDScopus Author IDWeb of Science ResearcherIDDialnet ID

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Item
    Landscape modification due to agricultural irrigation: Carbonate tufa formation on Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
    (Anthropocene, 2021) Alonso Zarza, Ana María; Casillas, Ramón; Rodríguez Berriguete, Álvaro
    The use of irrigation water on Tenerife has modified the hydrogeological system resulting in the formation of an anthropogenic carbonate tufa. The processes involved in its formation are: 1) infiltration of rainwater and mixing with groundwater rich in volcanic carbon dioxide (CO2), 2) weathering of volcanic rocks increasing the ion content of the water, 3) extraction of this water from subterranean galleries and channels and spilling it onto the Lomo Morin slope, 4) mechanical CO2 degassing and photosynthetic activity driving calcite precipitation. The tufa consists of boundstones of algae and coated stems of reeds, along with laminated microbial crusts. Textures range from microspar to coarse mosaics to fibrous-radial calcite, all containing biogenic features. The presence of the green macroalga Blidingia is noticeable. Carbon stable isotope ratio (δ13C) varies between -3.58 and +1.03‰ VPDB (Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite) and oxygen stable isotope ratio (δ18O) between -6.77 and -5.00‰ VPDB, highlighting the largely meteoric origin of the water with some addition of deep CO2. A strontium isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) of 0.7030 confirms the weathering of volcanic rocks as the source of calcium. The Lomo Morin tufa provides a scale model of how water use contributes to rapid landscape change through alterations in the hydrogeological system. It also provides a good example of a CO2 sink in a continental setting, and is comparable to the global carbon cycle, which mostly involves marine limestones. Although anthropogenic processes are commonly viewed negatively, the human modification of the hydrogeological system reported in this study has produced changes to geological and ecological conditions that have increased the geo - and biodiversity of the island.
  • Item
    Maastrichtian atmospheric pCO2 and climatic reconstruction from carbonate paleosols of the Marília Formation (southeastern Brazil)
    (Journal of sedimentary research, 2022) Menezes, Maurícius Nascimento; Dal' Bó, Patrick Führ; Smith, Jon J.; Goulart Rodrigues, Amanda; Rodríguez Berriguete, Álvaro
    Paleosols are the product of ancient physical, chemical, and biological processes on the Earth's surface and, as such, may record information that can be used to reconstruct the paleoatmospheric and paleoenvironmental conditions under which they formed. In Brazilian continental sedimentary successions, few studies using ancient soils have focused on the relationship between paleopedogenesis and paleoclimate. The Marilia Formation is a 160-m-thick section of the Bauru Basin in which ∼ 66% of the deposits show some evidence of pedogenic modification as paleosols. In this paper, paleosol profiles in the Marilia Formation containing thick calcrete intervals are described and attributed to three pedotypes: Avencas, Monte Alto, and Garça. Macro and microscopic pedogenic features of each pedotype are described in detail. Moreover, the analysis of clay mineralogy, whole-rock geochemistry, and stable-isotope composition are used to define pedogenic processes, paleoclimate proxies, and atmospheric pCO2 estimates. The Avencas pedotype is composed of six polygenetic profiles with different phases of carbonate precipitation, clay illuviation, and biogenic actions. The Monte Alto pedotype is moderately developed and composed of calcic horizons formed mainly by rhizoliths, with higher degrees of calcification and oxidation compared to Avencas profiles. The Garça pedotype is well developed with five polygenetic profiles presenting high carbonate content and low accumulation of clay minerals (CIA-K) and leaching. Estimates of paleoprecipitation and paleotemperature from the studied paleosols using climofunctions of molar ratio of base to alumina, depth of carbonate accumulation, salinization, oxygen composition, and paleosol weathering index proxy (PWI) show values ranging from 242 to 718 mm/yr and 11° to 14°, respectively. Climofunction values suggest a paleoclimate of semiarid to subhumid during deposition of the Marília Formation. The climate data also suggests that during the Maastrichtian, the Bauru Basin was geographically within the Southern Hot Arid Belt zone, though showing strong influence of the lower latitudinal Equatorial Humid belt. Furthermore, atmospheric pCO2 values calculated from pedogenic carbonates may correlate with a cooling interval during the latest Maastrichtian (68.5–66.25 My).
  • Item
    Unravelling calcrete environmental controls in volcanic islands, Gran Canaria Island, Spain
    (Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2020) Alonso Zarza, Ana María; Rodríguez Berriguete, Álvaro; Martín Pérez, Andrea; Martín García, Rebeca; Menéndez, Inmaculada; Mangas, José
    Volcanic islands are unique contexts to analyze the controls on calcrete development in settings with varied relief, climate and vegetation, and lacking carbonate host rocks. This paper discusses the formation of Quaternary calcrete profiles in Gran Canaria volcanic Island, under direct influence of the SAL (Saharian Air Layer). Calcrete profiles are multi-storey and composed of prismatic, massive, laminar, pisolithic, ooid-bearing, sandy mudstones with rhizoliths and brecciated horizons. Host rocks include basalts, siliceous mudstones, volcanic sands and gravels and bioclastic-rich sands. Carbonate is mostly calcite but some dolomite occurs in massive horizons. The main microfabrics include laminated micrite, fine crystalline dolomite, desiccated micrite, micrite-clay groundmass, oriented Mg-rich clays, peloids, spherulites and coated grains. δ13C varies from −3.26 to −9.18‰ VPDB and δ18O from +0.86 to −3.24‰ VPDB. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios are between 0.707504 and 0.708860, indicating that calcium was mostly supplied from the CaCO3-rich aeolian dust coming from the Sahara Desert. Calcrete profiles are mostly pedogenic with roots and microorganisms enabling carbonate precipitation within the soils. The correlation trend of δ13C and δ18O points to a climate control on precipitation, with the heavier isotope values in the horizons containing dolomite. Sedimentation rates interplayed with calcrete formation processes and erosion to outline the profiles/horizons. Amalgamated laminar horizons formed when the rate of calcrete formation was higher than sedimentation and erosion, whereas areas or periods with relatively higher sedimentation allowed the separation of calcrete horizons. The direction of the winds supplying aeolian dust, and the varied relief, vegetation and climate favored better development of calcretes in the relatively arid and lowland areas of the eastern side of the island. Our study shows that calcretes contain the record of the paleoenvironmental controls that operated in volcanic islands with no previous carbonate substrates.
  • Item
    Carbonate tufas as archives of climate and sedimentary dynamic in volcanic settings, examples from Gran Canaria (Spain)
    (Sedimentology, 2022) Rodríguez Berriguete, Álvaro; Camuera, Jon; Alonso Zarza, Ana María
    Three Holocene tufas from Gran Canaria volcanic island were studied with the aim of deciphering their sedimentary evolution through space and time. Las Temisas tufa (south-eastern arid part of the island) is dominantly composed of oncoids, intraclasts, phytoclasts, coated stems, minor thin stromatolites, and a high amount of siliciclastics. It was deposited in a fluvial system with variable flow velocities and palustrine conditions areas, which alternated with high energy events. Azuaje tufa (northern humid part of the island) is composed of coated stems, stromatolites, oncoids and phytoclasts, with relatively low amounts of siliciclastics, suggesting slow-flowing and palustrine conditions and a relatively low incidence of (high energy) floodings. Los Berrazales tufa (north-west of Gran Ganaria, the most humid one), is mainly composed of coated stems and crystalline crusts, formed in a laminar flow regime. Dominant clastic sedimentation in Las Temisas and high calcite growth rates in Los Berrazales led to a poor development of stromatolites in comparison with Azuaje. Las Temisas and Azuaje deposits have similar upward evolution with decreasing trend in siliciclastics and increasing trend in carbonates. However, Las Temisas has higher siliciclastic and lower phytoclastic contents suggesting a less vegetated area and more arid climate than in the other deposits. Additionally, tufas record local events common in volcanic terrains. Azuaje presents three units bounded by erosive discontinuities, which reveal significant erosion by enhanced runoff that could be caused by loss of vegetation due to wildfires related to volcanic eruptions at headwaters. Las Temisas record a possible interruption in sedimentation represented by aligned boulders due to rockfalls from the hillsides. These deposits formed from waters with similar chemistry providing to the carbonates their similar signals in δ13C–δ18O stable isotopes and 87Sr/86Sr ratios like that of the volcanic rocks. This work shows how, in volcanic areas, tufas are unique archives of the climate, vegetation and volcanic-related processes, because all imprint the sedimentary regime of tufa deposition.
  • Item
    Early diagenetic features in Holocene travertine and tufa from a volcanic setting (Azuaje, Gran Canaria, Spain)
    (Facies, 2020) Rodríguez Berriguete, Álvaro
    The diagenesis of travertine and tufa is rarely considered an issue due to the common difficulty of distinguishing what is primary from secondary, as in most of cases these diagenetic changes occur very early. The main diagenetic features of travertine and tufa formed within a volcanic ravine in the north of Gran Canaria (Canary Islands, Spain) are cementation within pores and cavities, and of micropores (< 0.06 mm), micritization, aggrading neomorphism, aragonite-to-calcite transformation, and dissolution. One of the most striking features is cementation of micropores between fibrous crystals of shrubs, spherulites and crusts. Micropore cementation leads to a textural change of the primary aragonite and calcite fibres to a massive crystalline texture retaining the original fibres. Early cementation of micropores in fibrous textures can be significant in understanding their preservation in ancient shrubs and spherulites, such as those of Cretaceous Pre-salt reservoirs. These diagenetic changes are strongly controlled by their low porosity and permeability, whereas diagenesis occurred in a different way in the more porous and permeable textures. The diagenetic changes described here occurred very early in both tufa and travertine, being almost totally restricted to the period immediately after deposition.
  • Item
    Lacustrine microbialite pinnacles in the Palaeogene of Patagonia, Argentina: Facies and controls
    (Sedimentary Geology, 2020) Alonso Zarza, Ana María; Cabaleri, Nora G.; Huerta, Pedro; Armella, Claudia; Rodríguez Berriguete, Álvaro; Monferran, Mateo D.; Gallego, Oscar F.; Ubaldon, María Cecilia; Silva Nieto, Diego
    Large carbonate microbialite build-ups are relatively uncommon in ancient fresh-water lacustrine basins as compared with those marine and saline environments. This paper discusses the formation of a large continental lacustrine deposit, the Oligocene-Miocene Carinao Formation in Argentina, which contains large bioherms. The lacustrine formation occurs in N-S corridor and is mostly composed by meter scale pinnacles and sheet-like carbonate beds that grade to detrital deposits towards the more subsident southern areas. The main facies are autochthonous and allochthonous limestones and detrital deposits. The autochthonous limestones include the carbonate pinnacles, which are about 4 m high and 0.5 m in diameter and coalesce laterally to form very continuous beds (several kms). The pinnacles are formed by plate-like, dome, vertically elongated and irregular horizontal bioherms, most of them with radial structure. The bioherms are boundstones of fibrous (fans and spherulites) and feather calcite crystals, micrite and inequigranular calcite mosaics. Both biogenic and abiogenic processes interfered in carbonate precipitation. Allochthonous limestones include peloidal, ostracod and intraclastic limestones, some containing coated grains. Polymictic conglomerates and cross-bedded hybrid arenites deposited in a fluvial-deltaic system located at the southwest of the basin. δ13C values vary between −0.4 and −3.2‰ VPDB and δ18O are comprised between −5.7 and −8.6‰ VPDB. The 87Sr/86Sr ratios range between 0.7061 and 0.7056. The Carinao Formation deposited in a fresh-water lake, sourced by meteoric and deep-groundwater. Tectonics was a main control determining the configuration of the lake system, the water supply and the alignment of some bioherms. The vertical succession or the different bioherms morphologies reflects well the lake level changes controlled by both tectonic and climate.