Isotope geochemistry of Paleoproterozoic metacarbonates from Itatuba,Borborema Province,Northeastern Brazil: Evidence of marble melting within a collisional suture

Strongly-deformed marbles may be easily confused with linear and elongated carbonatite intrusions. Both rocks may present similar texture and foliation to the host rock, or even cross cutting field relationships, which could be interpreted either as igneous or high-grade metamorphosed marble. Diagnostic criteria are even more complex when there is evidence of melting of the metasedimentary carbonate rock, such as has been described in the Himalayas and in the Eastern Ghats, India.In the Alto Moxotó Terrane, a high-grade gneissic domain of the Borborema Province, Northeastern Brazil, there are metacarbonates associated with banded gneisses and different metaplutonic rocks. Field evidence indicates the absence of other metasedimentary rocks associated with these marbles, thus suggesting that these carbonates were separated from other siliciclastic metasedimentary rocks. The presence of marble also suggests that it may represent the initial stage of a crustal carbon recycling into the mantle. These marbles present many field similarities to carbonatites (e.g., fluid-flow structure) and, together with metagranites and metamafic intrusions, may represent a major collisional tectonic suture.A detailed study of the carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopic composition of these marbles is presented. This study aims to identify the origin of the different isotopic components. It is argued that these rocks were subjected to temperature and pressure conditions that were sufficiently high to have melted them. The isotopic data presented here support this interpretation and indicate the mixing of two components: (i) one characterized by radiogenic Sr isotopes and mantle-like carbon isotopes, which is associated with the gneissic and mafic rocks, and (ii) another characterized by low ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and highly positive δ¹³C values. Available geochemical data for the upper Paleoproterozoic indicate that the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio of ocean water, varying between 0.7050 (2.25 ± 0.25 Ga) and 0.7047 (1.91 Ga), falls within the lower range of the samples from Itatuba and thus reinforces the interpretation that these marbles are sedimentary-derived and were partially contaminated by interaction with the host gneissic and mafic rocks.     

Mineralogical approaches to sourcing pipes and figurines from the eastern woodlands,U.S.A.

Provenance studies of stone artifacts often rely heavily upon chemical techniques such as neutron activation analysis. However, stone specimens with very similar chemical composition can have different mineralogies (distinctive crystalline structures as well as variations within the same mineral) that are not revealed by multielemental techniques. Because mineralogical techniques are often cheap and usually nondestructive, beginning with mineralogy allows the researcher to gain valuable information and then to be selective about how many samples are submitted for expensive and somewhat destructive chemical analysis, thus conserving both valuable samples and funds. Our University of Illinois team of archaeologists and geologists employs Portable Infrared Mineral Analyzer (PIMA) spectroscopy, X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and Sequential acid dissolution/XRD/Inductively coupled plasma (SAD‐XRD‐ICP) analyses. Two case studies of Hopewellian pipes and Mississippian figurines illustrate this mineralogical approach. The results for both studies identify sources relatively close to the sites where the artifacts were recovered: Sterling, Illinois (rather than Ohio) for the (Hopewell) pipes and Missouri (rather than Arkansas or Oklahoma) for the Cahokia figurines. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Spectral Irradiance, Phytoplankton Community Composition and Primary Productivity in a Salt Marsh Estuary, North Inlet, South Carolina, USA

We investigated spatial and temporal changes in spectral irradiance, phytoplankton community composition, and primary productivity in North Inlet Estuary, South Carolina, USA. High concentrations of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) were responsible for up to 84 % of the attenuation of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR). Green-yellow wavelengths were the predominant colors of light available at the two sampling sites: Clam Bank Creek and Oyster Landing. Vertical attenuation coefficients of PAR were 0.7–2.1 m^?1 with corresponding euphotic zone depths of 1.5–6.7 m. Phytoplankton biomass (as chlorophyll a [chl a]) varied seasonally with a summer maximum of 16 μg chl a l^?1 and a winter minimum of 1.4 μg chl a l^?1. The phytoplankton community consisted mainly of diatoms, prasinophytes, cryptophytes and haptophytes, with diatoms and prasinophytes accounting for up to 67 % of total chl a. Changes in phytoplankton community composition showed strongest correlations with temperature. Light-saturated chl a-specific rates of photosynthesis and daily primary productivity varied with season and ranged from 1.6 to 14 mg C (mg chl a) ^?1?h^?1 (32–803 mg C m^?3?day^?1). Calculated daily rates added up to an annual carbon fixation rate of 84 g C m^?3?year^?1. Overall, changes in phytoplankton community composition and primary productivity in North Inlet showed a strong dependence on temperature, with PAR and spectral irradiance playing a relatively minor role due to short residence times, strong tidal forcing and vertical mixing.     

Textured organic surfaces associated with the Ediacara biota in South Australia

The Ediacaran Period takes its name from the fossils of the Ediacara biota, which represent the first appearance of large and diverse assemblages of organisms in the fossil record. Although the global record of these distinctive body fossils is now well known, a previously unrecognized megascopic organic record of textured organic surfaces (TOS) occurs in the Ediacara biota. However, TOS is also a feature over a wider range of paleoenvironmental settings, where body fossils are unknown, in Ediacaran siliciclastic successions that have been studied in Australia, Namibia and western North America.Paleoecological analysis of successive bedding planes of strata from the late Ediacaran Rawnsley Quartzite in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, reveals that TOS represent the most common organic features in bedding-surface assemblages of the Ediacara biota. The TOS consist of preserved, patterned assemblages of textured organic mats, fibers and simple tubular body fossils. Complex Ediacara body fossils while striking for their distinctive body plans, and dominating some of the beds, are relatively minor components of combined overall surface area. Many elements of TOS have previously been miss-diagnosed as trace fossils, which are in practice limited to two or at most three morphotypes that indicate the presence of Bilateria. Although TOS represent a simpler grade of organismic construction than discrete and more complex Ediacara body fossils, they were preserved in a similar manner. Marked variability in all components of the biota between successive surfaces suggests that Ediacara ecologies fluctuated at short intervals despite an apparently consistent sedimentary regime.     

Stable isotope (C,O, S) systematics of the mercury mineralization at Idrija,Slovenia: constraints on fluid source and alteration processes

The world-class Idrija mercury deposit (western Slovenia) is hosted by highly deformed Permocarboniferous to Middle Triassic sedimentary rocks within a complex tectonic structure at the transition between the External Dinarides and the Southern Alps. Concordant and discordant mineralization formed concomitant with Middle Triassic bimodal volcanism in an aborted rift. A multiple isotopic (C, O, S) investigation of host rocks and ore minerals was performed to put constraints on the source and composition of the fluid, and the hydrothermal alteration. The distributions of the ¹³C and ¹⁸O values of host and gangue carbonates are indicative of a fracture-controlled hydrothermal system, with locally high fluid-rock ratios. Quantitative modeling of the ¹³C and ¹⁸O covariation for host carbonates during temperature dependent fluid-rock interaction, and concomitant precipitation of void-filling dolomites points to a slightly acidic hydrothermal fluid (¹³C–4 and ¹⁸O+10), which most likely evolved during isotopic exchange with carbonates under low fluid/rock ratios. The ³⁴S values of hydrothermal and sedimentary sulfur minerals were used to re-evaluate the previously proposed magmatic and evaporitic sulfur sources for the mineralization, and to assess the importance of other possible sulfur sources such as the contemporaneous seawater sulfate, sedimentary pyrite, and organic sulfur compounds. The ³⁴S values of the sulfides show a large variation at deposit down to hand-specimen scale. They range for cinnabar and pyrite from –19.1 to +22.8, and from –22.4 to +59.6, respectively, suggesting mixing of sulfur from different sources. The peak of ³⁴S values of cinnabar and pyrite close to 0 is compatible with ore sulfur derived dominantly from a magmatic fluid and/or from hydrothermal leaching of basement rocks. The similar stratigraphic trends of the ³⁴S values of both cinnabar and pyrite suggest a minor contribution of sedimentary sulfur (pyrite and organic sulfur) to the ore formation. Some of the positive ³⁴S values are probably derived from thermochemical reduction of evaporitic and contemporaneous seawater sulfates.Editorial handling: P. Lattanzi     

Sulfur isotope variations from orebody to hand-specimen scale at the Mežica lead–zinc deposit, Slovenia: a predominantly biogenic pattern

The Mississippi Valley-type (MVT) Pb–Zn ore district at Mežica is hosted by Middle to Upper Triassic platform carbonate rocks in the Northern Karavanke/Drau Range geotectonic units of the Eastern Alps, northeastern Slovenia. The mineralization at Mežica covers an area of 64 km² with more than 350 orebodies and numerous galena and sphalerite occurrences, which formed epigenetically, both conformable and discordant to bedding. While knowledge on the style of mineralization has grown considerably, the origin of discordant mineralization is still debated. Sulfur stable isotope analyses of 149 sulfide samples from the different types of orebodies provide new insights on the genesis of these mineralizations and their relationship. Over the whole mining district, sphalerite and galena have δ ³⁴ S values in the range of –24.7 to –1.5‰ VCDT (–13.5 ± 5.0‰) and –24.7 to –1.4‰ (–10.7 ± 5.9‰), respectively. These values are in the range of the main MVT deposits of the Drau Range. All sulfide δ ³⁴ S values are negative within a broad range, with δ ³⁴ S _pyrite <δ ³⁴ S _sphalerite <δ ³⁴ S _galena for both conformable and discordant orebodies, indicating isotopically heterogeneous H₂S in the ore-forming fluids and precipitation of the sulfides at thermodynamic disequilibrium. This clearly supports that the main sulfide sulfur originates from bacterially mediated reduction (BSR) of Middle to Upper Triassic seawater sulfate or evaporite sulfate. Thermochemical sulfate reduction (TSR) by organic compounds contributed a minor amount of ³⁴S-enriched H₂S to the ore fluid. The variations of δ ³⁴ S values of galena and coarse-grained sphalerite at orefield scale are generally larger than the differences observed in single hand specimens. The progressively more negative δ ³⁴ S values with time along the different sphalerite generations are consistent with mixing of different H₂S sources, with a decreasing contribution of H₂S from regional TSR, and an increase from a local H₂S reservoir produced by BSR (i.e., sedimentary biogenic pyrite, organo-sulfur compounds). Galena in discordant ore (–11.9 to –1.7‰; –7.0 ± 2.7‰, n = 12) tends to be depleted in ³⁴ S compared with conformable ore (–24.7 to –2.8‰, –11.7 ± 6.2‰, n = 39). A similar trend is observed from fine-crystalline sphalerite I to coarse open-space filling sphalerite II. Some variation of the sulfide δ ³⁴ S values is attributed to the inherent variability of bacterial sulfate reduction, including metabolic recycling in a locally partially closed system and contribution of H₂S from hydrolysis of biogenic pyrite and thermal cracking of organo-sulfur compounds. The results suggest that the conformable orebodies originated by mixing of hydrothermal saline metal-rich fluid with H₂S-rich pore waters during late burial diagenesis, while the discordant orebodies formed by mobilization of the earlier conformable mineralization.     

Contributors to chromium isotope variation of meteorites

We report the results of a comprehensive, high precision survey of the Cr isotopic compositions of primitive chondrites, along with some differentiated meteorites. To ensure complete dissolution of our samples, they were first fused with lithium borate-tetraborate at 1050-1000 °C. Relative to the NIST Cr standard SRM 3112a, carbonaceous chondrites exhibit excesses in ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr from 0.4 to 1.6ε (1ε = 1 part in 10,000), and ordinary chondrites display a common ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr deficit of ∼0.4ε. Analyses of acid-digestion residues of chondrites show that carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites share a common ⁵⁴Cr-enriched carrier, which is characterized by a large excess in ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr (up to 200ε) associated with a very small deficit in ⁵³Cr/⁵²Cr (<2ε). We did not find ⁵⁴Cr anomalies in either bulk enstatite chondrites or in leachates of their acid-digestion residues. This either requires that the enstatite chondrite parent bodies did not incorporate the ⁵⁴Cr anomaly carrier phase during their accretion, or the phase was destroyed by parent body metamorphism. Chromium in the terrestrial rocks and lunar samples analyzed here show no deviation from the NIST SRM 3112a Cr standard. The eucrite and Martian meteorites studied exhibit small deficits in ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr. The ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr variations among different meteorite classes suggest that there was a spatial and/or temporal heterogeneity in the distribution of a ⁵⁴Cr-rich component in the inner Solar System.We confirm the correlated excesses in ⁵⁴Cr/⁵²Cr and ⁵³Cr/⁵²Cr for bulk carbonaceous chondrites, but the new data yield a steeper slope (∼6.6) than that reported in Shukolyukov and Lugmair (2006). The correlated excesses may affect the use of the Mn-Cr chronometer in carbonaceous chondrites. We could not confirm the bulk carbonaceous chondrite Mn-Cr isochron reported by Shukolyukov and Lugmair (2006) and Moynier et al. (2007), mostly because we find much smaller total variations in ε⁵³Cr (∼0.2). All bulk chondrites have small ε⁵³Cr excesses (up to 0.3) relative to the Earth, most likely reflecting the sub-chondritic Mn/Cr ratio of the Earth. The ε⁵³Cr variations in chondrites do seem to grossly correlate with Mn/Cr and yield an initial Solar System ⁵³Mn/⁵⁵Mn value of 5.4(±2.4) × 10⁻⁶, corresponding to an absolute age of 4566.4 (±2.2) Ma.Nuclear interactions with cosmic rays result in coupled excesses in ε⁵⁴Cr and ε⁵³Cr with a ∼4:1 ratio in phases with high Fe/Cr. These are most dramatically demonstrated in the iron meteorite Carbo, showing excesses in ε⁵⁴Cr of up to 140ε. These new results show that the Mn-Cr chronometer should be used with caution in samples/minerals with high Fe/Cr and long cosmic ray exposure ages.     

A new record of pasiphaeid shrimp of the genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Pasiphaea</Emphasis> (Crustacea: Decapoda: Caridea) in Korean waters

A single specimen of the pelagic shrimps, Pasiphaea japonica Omori, 1976 (Pasiphaeidae) collected in the southeastern waters of Korea is described and illustrated. Although this species occurs widely in the Indo-West Pacific including the Japanese coast of the East/Japan Sea and the middle and southern parts of the East China Sea, this is the first record of the species and the genus in Korean waters. The species is distinguished from other congeners by the following combination of characteristics: non-carinate dorsal sixth abdominal somite with a terminal tooth, rudimentary pleurobranch on the eighth thoracic somite, merus of the first pereopod with more than eight spines, and almost entirely transparent white color.