Fluid Inclusions in Halite: Clues to the History of Seawater

拟议的研究计划旨在提高我们的 了解过去一年中海水的化学演变 6亿年地球的历史。 为了实现这一目标，我们计划扩大 我们的盐水化学成分分析数据库 海相碳酸盐岩中的岩盐（NaCl）包裹体。 这些盐水中的许多是溶液的样品， 盐沉淀下来。 在海相碳酸盐岩中， 或完全来自海水;因此， 反映了当时海水的组成 降水 在许多情况下，这些盐水的演变 从海水中提取的信息是如此复杂， 关于母体海水的组成，可以从 包裹体流体的组成。 好在 一些海相碳酸盐岩中的卤水演化， 足够简单，因此， 海水是可以重建的。 迄今为止积累的数据 表明海水的成分 在过去的6亿年里， 目前，这些数据是 仍然支离破碎。 我们建议将其大大延长，并 建立一个合理完整的记录的组成 古生代时期的海水

The proposed program of research is designed to improve our understanding of the chemical evolution of seawater during the last 600 m.y. of Earth history. To accomplish this, we plan to extend our analytical data base for the chemical composition of brines in fluid inclusions trapped in halite (NaCl) in marine evaporites. Many of these brines are samples of the solutions from which the salt precipitated. In marine evaporites these brines are largely or entirely derived from seawater; their composition therefore reflects the composition of seawater at the time of salt precipitation. In many instances the evolution of these brines from seawater has been so complicated, that little information regarding the composition of the parent seawater can be gained from the composition of the inclusion fluids. Fortunately, the evolution of the brines in some marine evaporites has been sufficiently simple, so that much of the chemistry of the starting seawater can be reconstructed. The data accumulated to date indicate that the composition of seawater has been surprisingly conservative during the past 600 m.y. At present these data are still fragmentary. We propose to extend them considerably, and to construct a reasonably complete record of the composition of seawater during the Phanerozoic Eon.