Sulfur isotope studies of drill cores from the Barberton Greenstone Belt

这项提议要求提供资金，以支持对来自三个岩心的70个散装样品的四个硫同位素的分析，这些样品是最近在南非巴伯顿山区进行的ICDP钻探活动的一部分。样品包括黑色页岩、浸染状硫化物和硅质岩和重晶石中的硫化物层。拟议的分析将提供第一次一瞥这些古太古代(3600至3200万年前)保存良好状态的沉积序列的硫同位素地球化学。这项工作的目标之一将是评估是否存在支持硫磺微生物改造的证据，如果是的话，它为了解硫磺的来源和控制海洋中硫酸盐浓度提供了哪些信息。这项工作的第二个目的将是评估在其他演替中看到的36S和33S之间关系的变化是否存在于古太古代。该项目是关于这些核心材料的硫同位素的广泛国际合作的一部分，参与合作的有国际和平研究所、乌得勒支大学、威斯康星大学(德国明斯特)、瑞典自然历史博物馆(瑞典斯德哥尔摩)和地球物理研究所(法国巴黎)的科学家。所有这些集团目前要么参与了现有的合作，要么计划在巴伯顿钻井项目的保护伞下合作。这被视为一个独特的机会，可以利用共享技术从大约2公里长的沉积钻探岩心中高层次详细地研究大量样品，为联合研究和子项目之间的协调提供了充分的空间，以产生更重要和更全面的数据集。这项工作将至少在一份主要国际期刊上发表一份联合概览出版物。

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.