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During R/V Meteor cruise 141/1, pore fluids of near surface sediments were investigated to find indications for hydrothermal activity in the Terceira Rift (TR), a hyperslow spreading center in the Central North Atlantic Ocean. To date, submarine hydrothermal fluid venting in the TR has only been reported for the D. João de Castro seamount, which presently seems to be inactive. Pore fluids sampled close to a volcanic cone at 2,800‐m water depth show an anomalous composition with Mg, SO4, and total alkalinity concentrations significantly higher than seawater and a nearby reference core. The most straightforward way of interpreting these deviations is the dissolution of the hydrothermally formed mineral caminite (MgSO4 0.25 Mg (OH)2 0.2H2O). This interpretation is corroborated by a thorough investigation of fluid isotope systems (δ26Mg, δ30Si, δ34S, δ44/42Ca, and 87Sr/86Sr). Caminite is known from mineral assemblages with anhydrite and forms in hydrothermal recharge zones only under specific conditions such as high fluid temperatures and in altered oceanic crust, which are conditions generally met at the TR. We hypothesize that caminite was formed during hydrothermal activity and is now dissolving during the waning state of the hydrothermal system, so that caminite mineralization is shifted out of its stability zone. Ongoing fluid circulation through the basement is transporting the geochemical signal via slow advection toward the seafloor.
Si isotope fractionation during BIF formation – inferences from a modern Archean ocean analogue
(2019)
Silica-rich sedimentary rocks like cherts and BIFS, typical for the Archean, have been used to reconstruct temperatures and other properties of the early oceans through the study of their Si isotope variations. Precambrian cherts and BIFS span a δ30Si range of ~7‰, with BIFs being about 2‰ lower in δ30Si than cherts. These lower δ30Si signatures have been attributed to represent contributions from different input sources such as hydrothermal fluids, variable continental weathering regimes or sorption onto Fe oxides/hydroxides [e.g. 2 and references therein]. In this study, fluids and BIF-like sediments have been investigated for their Si isotope compositions in Paulina Lake (PL), a hydrothermally-influenced crater lake in the Newberry Caldera, Oregon, USA. PL lake sediments are rich in silica (~65wt% SiO2) and are composed of up to 22.5wt% Fe2O3, which is comparable to Archean BIFs and thus serve as a modern Archean ocean analogue. We compared our analyses with East Lake (EL), the twin Newberry crater lake without hydrothermal input. Dissolved Si in EL has an average δ30Si signature of +1.55±0.16‰ (1sd) and sediments an average δ30Si signature of +0.18±0.28‰ (1sd). Dissolved Si in PL has an average δ30Si signature of +2.02±0.15‰ (1sd), whereas the sediments show a large range in δ30Si values between +0.59‰ and -1.24‰. PL sediments show a trend towards more negative δ30Si with increasing Fe2O3 contents. The magnitude of Si isotope fractionation thus appears to depend on the presence of Fe. This fractionation induced by interaction with Fe precipitation is defined here as the offset in δ30Si between PL and EL sediments at comparable depths (Δ30SiPL-EL). The resulting Δ30SiPL-EL values range between +0.69 and -1.42‰ and increase with increasing Fe2O3 content in the sediments. Our results are the first to quantify the magnitude of Fe-induced δ30Si fractionation observed in a natural analogue of the Archean ocean and can explain the lighter δ30Si signatures found in BIFs.
Various plant compartments of a single bell pepper plant were studied to verify the variability of boron isotope composition in plants and to identify possible intra-plant isotope fractionation. Boron mass fractions varied from 9.8 mg/kg in the fruits to 70.0 mg/kg in the leaves. Boron (B) isotope ratios reported as δ11B ranged from -11.0 to +16.0 (U ≤ 1.9, k=2) and showed a distinct trend to heavier δ11B values the higher the plant compartments were located in the plant. A fractionation of Δ11Bleaf-roots = 27 existed in the studied bell pepper plant, which represents about about 1/3 of the overall natural boron isotope variation (ca. 80). Two simultaneous operating processes are a possible explanation for the observed systematic intra-plant δ11B variation: 1) B is fixed in cell walls in its tetrahedral form (borate), which preferentially incorporates the light B isotope and the remaining xylem sap gets enriched in the heavy B isotope and 2) certain transporter preferentially transport the trigonal 11B-enriched boric acid molecule and thereby the heavy 11B towards young plant compartments which were situated distal of the roots and typically high in the plant. Consequently, an enrichment of the heavy 11B isotope in the upper young plant parts located at the top of the plant could explain the observed isotope systematic. The identification and understanding of the processes generating systematic intra-plant δ11B variations will potentially enable the use of B isotope for plant metabolism studies.