Chalcophile Element Geochemistry

经济上重要的亲硫元素的地球化学行为相对知之甚少，这是由于在分析这些元素在常见岩石中的低浓度时存在历史困难。分析方法的最新进展现在提供了在非常低的（例如，纳克/克）浓度水平。该团队的目标是利用名义上亲铜元素（特别是Cu，Ga，Ge，As，Mo，Ag，Cd，In，Sn，Sb，W，Tl，Pb和Bi）的浓度来解决地球科学中的三个基本问题：a）大陆地壳如何形成并随着时间的推移而演变？B）在23 - 24亿年前发生的“大氧化事件”（GOE）之后，大气中有多少氧气？以及c）什么是地球的挥发性元素存量？研究人员将通过三个互补项目来研究这些问题。第一个目的是了解为什么钼是系统地耗尽在花岗岩相对于稀土元素，通过分析其在岩石（榴辉岩），代表古代俯冲洋壳的残留物的浓度，并确定在岩浆分异过程中，产生花岗岩的Mo的行为。通过这些研究，他们将评估上地壳钼贫化是否是由于其保留在俯冲板片中，保留在下大陆地壳堆积物中，或其分割成岩浆气相和沉淀在热液脉中的硫化钼（辉钼矿）中。研究结果将阐明上大陆地壳（UCC）生成的主要过程，并将限制UCC中的镁铝榴石总量，从而可以更可靠地计算古大气中的pO 2。第二个项目旨在确定在冰川沉积物（杂岩）中观察到的上陆壳钼同位素组成在地质历史上发生变化的原因。该团队将分析几个现代风化剖面中的钼同位素，以确定在氧气存在下风化的开始是否可以解释杂岩数据。如果他们发现Mo同位素在今天的含氧大气中风化过程中发生断裂，这可能使他们能够使用杂岩数据来限制过去存在的大气氧气量。最后，他们将确定现在暴露在比利牛斯山脉的上地幔岩石中全套亲铜元素的分布。与在岩浆中快速运输到地球表面的类似岩石不同，这些地幔露头保留了硫化物，因此将使研究人员能够确定这些元素在地幔熔融期间的行为，并允许独立估计地球上中度到高度挥发性亲铜元素的丰度，如As，Cd，Ga，In，Sn和Tl。确定地球的挥发性元素丰度可以深入了解我们的星球是如何形成的。

The geochemical behavior of the economically important chalcophile (sulfur-loving) elements is relatively poorly understood due to historical difficulties in analyzing these elements at the low concentrations in which they occur in common rocks. Recent advances in analytical methods now provides the ability to analyze these elements at relatively high precision at very low (e.g., nanogram per gram) concentration levels. This team aims to use the concentrations of nominally chalcophile elements (specifically Cu, Ga, Ge, As, Mo, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Sb, W, Tl, Pb, and Bi) to address three fundamental questions in Earth science: a) how has the continental crust formed and evolved over time?, b) how much oxygen was in the atmosphere following the "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE) that occurred at 2.3-2.4 billion years ago?, and c) what is Earth's volatile element inventory?Researchers will investigate these questions through three complementary projects. The first seeks to understand why molybdenum is systematically depleted in granites relative to rare earth elements by analyzing its concentrations in rocks (eclogites) that represent the residues of ancient subducted oceanic crust, and by determining the behavior of Mo during magmatic differentiation that produces granites. Through these studies, they will evaluate whether the upper crustal Mo depletion is due to its retention in subducted slabs, its retention in lower continental crustal cumulates, or its partitioning into a magmatic vapor phase and precipitation in molybdenum sulfide (molybdenite) in hydrothermal veins. The results will shed light on the main processes responsible for generation of the upper continental crust (UCC) and will place constraints on total amount of molybdenite in the UCC, allowing for more robust calculation of pO2 in the ancient atmosphere. The second project seeks to determine the cause of the change in the molybdenum isotope composition of the upper continental crust over geologic history, as observed in glacial deposits (diamictites). The team will analyze Mo isotopes in several modern weathering profiles to determine whether the onset of weathering in the presence of oxygen can explain the diamictite data. If they find that Mo isotopes fractionate during weathering in today's oxygenated atmosphere, it may allow them to use the diamictite data to place constraints on the amount of atmospheric oxygen that was present in the past. Finally, they will determine the distribution of the full suite of chalcophile elements within rocks of the upper mantle that are now exposed in the Pyrenees Mountains. Unlike similar rocks that are rapidly transported to Earth's surface in magmas, these mantle outcrops have retained sulfides, and thus will allow researchers to determine how these elements behave during mantle melting, and also allow for an independent estimate of Earth's abundance of moderately to highly volatile chalcophile elements such as As, Cd, Ga, In, Sn and Tl. Determining the volatile element abundances of Earth provides insights into how our planet formed.