Oxide chemistry and fluid inclusion constraints on the formation of itabirite-hosted iron ore deposits at the eastern border of the southern Espinhaço Range, Brazil

The Piçarrão and Liberdade deposits contain high-grade iron orebodies (>65% Fe) hosted in the Guanhães Group itabirite, that are associated with pegmatite veins and bodies. Fluid inclusion studies in quartz veins associated with the high-grade orebodies show that medium to high salinities (25–28 wt% NaCl eq.) and temperatures (275–375 °C) fluids are associated with the silica leaching that led to the iron enrichment. Mineral chemistry studies by LA-ICP-MS in the iron oxides demonstrate that metasomatic processes were responsible for the mineralogical transformations of magnetite to hematite and for subsequent hematite recrystallization. These processes are related to the iron upgrade in the itabirite and the formation of high-grade orebodies. The oxidation of the magnetite to martite is associated with an enrichment in P and As, and depletion in Mg, Ti and Co; as observed in martite crystals compared to their matching kenomagnetite rims. On the other hand Ti and Mo are enriched in hematite crystals that recrystallized from martite. In this case Ti behaved as an immobile element, and its enrichment is accompanied by the depletion of most of the trace elements. A second stage of magnetite formation precipitated with quartz in discordant veins and is oxidized to martite-II. These quartz-martite-II veins contain low salinity and temperature fluid inclusions that record an episode of meteoric fluid influx. The results of the LA-ICP-MS analyses on the fluid inclusions from pegmatite and quartz veins associated with the high-grade iron bodies indicate the contribution of anatectic fluids in the evolution of the metasomatic events

Sustained increases in atmospheric oxygen and marine productivity in the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic eras

A geologically rapid Neoproterozoic oxygenation event is commonly linked to the appearance of marine animal groups in the fossil record. However, there is still debate about what evidence from the sedimentary geochemical record—if any—provides strong support for a persistent shift in surface oxygen immediately preceding the rise of animals. We present statistical learning analyses of a large dataset of geochemical data and associated geological context from the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic sedimentary record and then use Earth system modelling to link trends in redox-sensitive trace metal and organic carbon concentrations to the oxygenation of Earth’s oceans and atmosphere. We do not find evidence for the wholesale oxygenation of Earth’s oceans in the late Neoproterozoic era. We do, however, reconstruct a moderate long-term increase in atmospheric oxygen and marine productivity. These changes to the Earth system would have increased dissolved oxygen and food supply in shallow-water habitats during the broad interval of geologic time in which the major animal groups first radiated. This approach provides some of the most direct evidence for potential physiological drivers of the Cambrian radiation, while highlighting the importance of later Palaeozoic oxygenation in the evolution of the modern Earth system

Marinoan glaciation in east central Brazil

Abstract not availableFabrício de Andrade Caxito, Galen P. Halverson, Alexandre Uhlein, Ross Stevenson, Tatiana Gonçalves Dias, Gabriel J. Uhlei