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On the trail of destruction.
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Geochemistry: on the Moon as it was on Earth.
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Alcohol and science: the grapes of rock.
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Telling the time.
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Modified ion exchange separation for tungsten isotopic measurements from kimberlite samples using multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.
Tungsten isotope composition of a sample of deep-seated rock can record the influence of core-mantle interaction of the parent magma. Samples of kimberlite, which is known as a carrier of diamond, from the deep mantle might exhibit effects of core-mantle interaction. Although tungsten isotope anomaly was reported for kimberlites from South Africa, a subsequent investigation did not verify the anomaly. The magnesium-rich and calcium-rich chemical composition of kimberlite might engender difficulty during chemical separation of tungsten for isotope analyses. This paper presents a simple, one-step anion exchange technique for precise and accurate determination of tungsten isotopes in kimberlites using multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). Large quantities of Ca and Mg in kimberlite samples were precipitated and removed with aqueous H(2)SO(4). Highly pure fractions of tungsten for isotopic measurements were obtained following an anion exchange chromatographic procedure involving mixed acids. That procedure enabled efficient removal of high field strength elements (HFSE), such as Hf, Zr and Ti, which are small ions that carry strong charges and develop intense electrostatic fields. The tungsten yields were 85%-95%. Advantages of this system include less time and less use of reagents. Precise and accurate isotopic measurements are possible using fractions of tungsten that are obtained using this method. The accuracy and precision of these measurements were confirmed using various silicate standard rock samples, JB-2, JB-3 and AGV-1.
[Does our interglacial period have an analogue in the past?].
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Mass extinctions caused by large bolide impacts.
Evidence indicates that the collisions of Earth and a large piece of Solar System debris such as a meteoroid, asteroid or comet caused the great extinctions of 65 million years ago, leading to the transition from the age of the dinosaurs to the age of the mammals.
Isotopes, ice ages, and terminal Proterozoic earth history.
Detailed correlations of ancient glacial deposits, based on temporal records of carbon and strontium isotopes in seawater, indicate four (and perhaps five) discrete ice ages in the terminal Proterozoic Eon. The close and repeated stratigraphic relationship between C-isotopic excursions and glaciogenic rocks suggests that unusually high rates of organic carbon burial facilitated glaciation by reducing atmospheric greenhouse capacity. The emerging framework of time and environmental change contributes to the improved resolution of stratigraphic and evolutionary pattern in the early fossil record of animals.
Effects of contamination age on phenanthrene desorption from aquifers.
The length of contact time of contaminant with aquifer solids has a significant impact on the subsequent desorption process that normally occurs after the aquifer cleanup. In the present study, a diffusion model was built and validated with experimental results. Phenanthrene was brought in contact with sand and soil particles for different lengths of time. The distributions of solid-phase concentration within intraparticle pores were determined numerically and then used as the initial conditions for the subsequent desorption process. The purpose was to investigate the effect of contaminants' age on desorption time. Results revealed that a significant fraction of contaminants desorbs very slowly, even for freshly contaminated materials. For example, it has taken years for phenanthrene to release from freshly contaminated Jurassic limestone and Triassic limestone. The desorption time for aged contaminated material was found to be longer than for freshly contaminated material, at a more or less constant ratio with respect to the degree of aging.
Microbialite morphostratigraphy as a tool for correlating Late Cambrian-Early Ordovician sequences.
Microbialite morphostratigraphy is a new tool for intrabasinal correlation using diverse microbialite structures (morphotypes). The recognition of the succession of morphotypes over constrained temporal intervals and broad areas is a function of the complex interactions that operate to create the structure. Because so many nonlinked variables (e.g., biotic, sedimentological, physicochemical) are involved, similar morphotypes do not reoccur over long temporal intervals. To demonstrate the technique, the upper Cambrian-lowermost Ordovician shelf strata of the Great Basin, United States, were correlated using both morphostratigraphy and standard lithostratigraphy. Six morphozones and one morphosubzone were recognized, as were four main lithologic successions. Because the boundaries between the morphozones and lithologic successions did not coincide, it is inferred that the characteristics of the various microbialite structures are not solely controlled by physical factors. The principles for establishing a morphostratigraphy outlined in this article allow for the potential to correlate along other ancient marine margins in both the same Cambrian and Ordovician interval, as well as any interval in the Phanerozoic in which diverse microbialite structures occur.
Cycle anatomy and variability in the storm-dominated type cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician): coming to grips with cycle delineation and genesis.
Although parasequence and sequence are scale-independent terms, they are frequently applied only to specific scales of cycles. For example, meter-scale cycles are commonly assumed to be parasequences or PACs. In the Upper Ordovician Kope and Fairview Formations of northern Kentucky, we examined a succession of 50 meter-scale cycles that have been variously interpreted as deepening-upward, shallowing-upward, or showing no relationship with water depth. Our analysis shows that these cycles, characterized by shifts in storm-bed proximality, are highly variable in their thickness and internal construction. Most cycles are best considered high-frequency sequences, because deepening-upward intervals are common, and many cycles contain evidence of abrupt basinward shifts in facies as expected at sequence boundaries. A minority fit the parasequence model of shallowing-upward cycles bounded by flooding surfaces. Larger, 20 m scale cycles are defined by systematic thickening and thinning trends of meter-scale cycles. However, meter-scale cycles do not display any systematic trends in cycle anatomy as a function of position within the 20 m cycles or position within the Kope and Fairview Formations. The high cycle variability and the lack of systematic stratigraphic organization with respect to longer-term cyclicity reflect either the irregularity of relative sea-level changes, the poor recording of sea-level changes in this deep-water setting, or the generation of these cycles by climate-induced cyclicity in storm intensity. These three mechanisms would generate similar patterns at the outcrop scale, so it is not possible at the present to distinguish between them.
Morphological biosignatures and the search for life on Mars.
This report provides a rationale for the advances in instrumentation and understanding needed to assess claims of ancient and extraterrestrial life made on the basis of morphological biosignatures. Morphological biosignatures consist of bona fide microbial fossils as well as microbially influenced sedimentary structures. To be recognized as evidence of life, microbial fossils must contain chemical and structural attributes uniquely indicative of microbial cells or cellular or extracellular processes. When combined with various research strategies, high-resolution instruments can reveal such attributes and elucidate how morphological fossils form and become altered, thereby improving the ability to recognize them in the geological record on Earth or other planets. Also, before fossilized microbially influenced sedimentary structures can provide evidence of life, criteria to distinguish their biogenic from non-biogenic attributes must be established. This topic can be advanced by developing process-based models. A database of images and spectroscopic data that distinguish the suite of bona fide morphological biosignatures from their abiotic mimics will avoid detection of false-positives for life. The use of high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic instruments, in conjunction with an improved knowledge base of the attributes that demonstrate life, will maximize our ability to recognize and assess the biogenicity of extraterrestrial and ancient terrestrial life.
Luminescence dating of quaternary deposits in geology in Brazil.
In the present work, systematic dating by luminescence methods has been done on 50 Quaternary geological samples within the study area of São Paulo State, Brazil. Bleaching experiments showed that residual TL intensity of 375 degrees C peak, of the quartz, was obtained after 10 h of sunlight exposition. Intensities decays of the 325 and 375 degrees C TL peaks can be fitted using second order exponential equation. Paleodose values were evaluated using regeneration methods with multiple aliquots. Samples dated indicate preliminary ages varying from 9 +/- 1 to 935 +/- 130 ka for colluvio-elluvial deposits, and from 17 +/- 2 to 215 +/- 30 ka for alluvial deposits of the study area. They cover four peneplained surfaces shaped during the Quaternary: I (1000-400 ka), II (400-120 ka), III (120-10 ka) and IV (10 ka until today), in decreasing order.
The ab initio simulation of the Earth's core.
The Earth has a liquid outer and solid inner core. It is predominantly composed of Fe, alloyed with small amounts of light elements, such as S, O and Si. The detailed chemical and thermal structure of the core is poorly constrained, and it is difficult to perform experiments to establish the properties of core-forming phases at the pressures (ca. 300 GPa) and temperatures (ca. 5000-6000 K) to be found in the core. Here we present some major advances that have been made in using quantum mechanical methods to simulate the high-P/T properties of Fe alloys, which have been made possible by recent developments in high-performance computing. Specifically, we outline how we have calculated the Gibbs free energies of the crystalline and liquid forms of Fe alloys, and so conclude that the inner core of the Earth is composed of hexagonal close packed Fe containing ca. 8.5% S (or Si) and 0.2% O in equilibrium at 5600 K at the boundary between the inner and outer cores with a liquid Fe containing ca. 10% S (or Si) and 8% O.
Osmium isotopes and mantle convection.
The decay of (187)Re to (187)Os (with a half-life of 42 billion years) provides a unique isotopic fingerprint for tracing the evolution of crustal materials and mantle residues in the convecting mantle. Ancient subcontinental mantle lithosphere has uniquely low Re/Os and (187)Os/(188)Os ratios due to large-degree melt extraction, recording ancient melt-depletion events as old as 3.2 billion years. Partial melts have Re/Os ratios that are orders of magnitude higher than their sources, and the subduction of oceanic or continental crust introduces into the mantle materials that rapidly accumulate radiogenic (187)Os. Eclogites from the subcontinental lithosphere have extremely high (187)Os/(188)Os ratios, and record ages as old as the oldest peridotites. The data show a near-perfect partitioning of Re/Os and (187)Os/(188)Os ratios between peridotites (low) and eclogites (high). The convecting mantle retains a degree of Os-isotopic heterogeneity similar to the lithospheric mantle, although its amplitude is modulated by convective mixing. Abyssal peridotites from the ocean ridges have low Os isotope ratios, indicating that the upper mantle had undergone episodes of melt depletion prior to the most recent melting events to produce mid-ocean-ridge basalt. The amount of rhenium estimated to be depleted from the upper mantle is 10 times greater than the rhenium budget of the continental crust, requiring a separate reservoir to close the mass balance. A reservoir consisting of 5-10% of the mantle with a rhenium concentration similar to mid-ocean-ridge basalt would balance the rhenium depletion of the upper mantle. This reservoir most likely consists of mafic oceanic crust recycled into the mantle over Earth's history and provides the material that melts at oceanic hotspots to produce ocean-island basalts (OIBs). The ubiquity of high Os isotope ratios in OIB, coupled with other geochemical tracers, indicates that the mantle sources of hotspots contain significant quantities (greater than 10%) of lithologically distinct mafic material which represents ancient oceanic lithosphere cycled through the convecting mantle on a time-scale of 800 million years or more.
The continental lithospheric mantle: characteristics and significance as a mantle reservoir.
The continental lithospheric mantle (CLM) is a small-volumed (ca. 2.5% of the total mantle), chemically distinct mantle reservoir that has been suggested to play a role in the source of continental and oceanic magmatism. It is our most easily identifiable reservoir for preserving chemical heterogeneity in the mantle. Petrological and geophysical constraints indicate that the maximum depth of the CLM is ca. 250 km. There is a clear secular variation of CLM composition, such that CLM formed in the last 2 Gyr is less depleted and therefore less dynamically stable than ancient CLM formed in the Archean. We present new trace-element data for kimberlite-hosted lithospheric peridotites and metasomites. These data, combined with other data for spinel peridotites from non-cratonic regions, show that neither hydrous nor anhydrous lithospheric mantle xenoliths make suitable sources for continental or oceanic basalts. Addition of a hydrous phase, either amphibole or phlogopite, to depleted peridotite results in positive Nb and Ti anomalies that are the opposite of those predicted for some flood-basalt sources on the basis of their trace-element abundances. Overall, the Sr and Nd isotopic composition of cratonic and non-cratonic CLM is close to bulk Earth, with cratonic CLM showing small numbers of extreme compositions. Thus, while the CLM is certainly ancient in many locations, its average composition is not significantly 'enriched' over primitive upper mantle, in terms of either radiogenic isotopes or trace elements. These characteristics, plus a change in lithospheric chemistry with depth, indicate that the elemental and isotopic composition of lithospheric mantle likely to be re-incorporated into convecting mantle via delamination/thermal erosion processes is probably not very distinct from that of the convecting mantle. These observations lead us to question the requirement for CLM participation in the source of oceanic magmas and to promote consideration of a mantle that is chemically heterogeneous on all scales. Hf and Nd isotope compositions identify a distinctive source component in deeply derived alkaline volcanics associated with continents. This component cannot be constrained to the CLM but may originate from a deeper reservoir of ancient, subducted oceanic crust stored in the mantle.
The evolution of mantle mixing.
We present a geochemical overview of the canonic model that suggests a two-layer mantle for most of the Earth's history. A change in the Rayleigh number may have modified the convection and now allows the subduction of oceanic plates into the lower mantle, which was not the case in the past. The measurement of stirring time in the source of mid-ocean-ridge basalt, together with Xe- and Pb-isotopic ratios in the mid-ocean-ridge-basalt source, suggests that the upper mantle is separated into two domains, one above the 400 km discontinuity (asthenosphere) with rapid mixing and short residence time, and another between the 400 and 670 km discontinuities with sluggish mixing and a residence time of ca. 1.5 x 10(9) yr.