Sulfur isotope studies of drill cores from the Barberton Greenstone Belt

该提案要求资金支持对来自三个岩心的70个散装样品的四种硫同位素的分析，这些样品是最近在南非巴伯顿山地ICDP钻探的一部分。样品包括黑色页岩、浸染式硫化物以及燧石和重晶石中的硫化物层。这些分析将使我们对这些保存完好的古太古代（距今36 ~ 32亿年前）沉积序列的硫同位素地球化学有一个初步的了解。这项工作的一个目标是评估存在证据支持微生物改造硫的可能性，如果是这样，它为理解硫的来源和控制海洋中硫酸盐浓度提供了什么信息。这项工作的第二个目的将是评估[amp；#916;]36S和&amp；#916；在其他序列中看到的33S存在于古太古代。该项目是这些核心材料硫同位素广泛国际合作的一部分，涉及PI和乌得勒支大学、Westfälische Wilhelms大学（德国明斯特）、瑞典自然历史博物馆（瑞典斯德哥尔摩）和全球物理研究所（法国巴黎）的科学家。所有这些团队目前都参与了现有的合作，或者正在计划在Barberton钻井项目的保护伞下合作。这被视为一个独特的机会，可以使用共享技术对大约2公里长的沉积岩心进行大量样本的高水平详细研究，为子项目之间的联合研究和协调提供充足的空间，以产生更重要和更全面的数据集。这项工作至少将在一个主要的国际期刊上发表一篇联合综述。

This proposal requests funds to support analysis of four sulfur isotopes in 70 bulk samples from three cores collected as part of recent ICDP drilling in the Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa. Samples include black shales, disseminated sulfide and sulfide layers in chert and barite. The proposed analyses will provide a first glimpse into the sulfur isotope geochemistry of these Palaeoarchean era (3600 to 3200 million years ago) sedimentary sequences with an excellent state of preservation. One goal of this work will be to evaluate the possibility that evidence exists supporting microbial reworking of sulfur, and if so, what information it provides for understanding sources of sulfur to and controls on sulfate concentrations in the oceans. A second aim of this work will be to evaluate whether variations in the relationship between Δ36S and Δ33S that are seen in other successions are present in the Paleoarchean. Project is part of a broad international collaboration on sulfur isotopes on these core materials involving the PI, and scientists at University of Utrecht, Westfälische Wilhelms University (Muenster, Germany), the Swedish Museum of Natural History (Stockholm, Sweden) and the Institute de Physique du Globe (Paris, France). All of these groups are currently either involved in existing collaborations or are planning to work together under the umbrella of the Barberton Drilling project. This is seen as a unique opportunity to study a large number of samples using shared techniques at a high level of detail from the approximately 2 km of sedimentary drill core, providing ample room for joint studies and coordination between sub-projects to yield a more significant and comprehensive dataset. At minimum, one joint overview publication in a major international journal will results from this work.