Release of oxidizing fluids in subduction zones recorded by iron isotope zonation in garnet

Subduction zones are key regions of chemical and mass transfer between the Earth’s surface and mantle. During subduction, oxidized material is carried into the mantle and large amounts of water are released due to the breakdown of hydrous minerals such as lawsonite. Dehydration accompanied by the release of oxidizing species may play a key role in controlling redox changes in the subducting slab and overlying mantle wedge. Here we present measurements of oxygen fugacity, using garnet–epidote oxybarometry, together with analyses of the stable iron isotope composition of zoned garnets from Sifnos, Greece. We find that the garnet interiors grew under relatively oxidized conditions whereas garnet rims record more reduced conditions. Garnet δ56Fe increases from core to rim as the system becomes more reduced. Thermodynamic analysis shows that this change from relatively oxidized to more reduced conditions occurred during lawsonite dehydration. We conclude that the garnets maintain a record of progressive dehydration and that the residual mineral assemblages within the slab became more reduced during progressive subduction-zone dehydration. This is consistent with the hypothesis that lawsonite dehydration accompanied by the release of oxidizing species, such as sulfate, plays an important and measurable role in the global redox budget and contributes to sub-arc mantle oxidation in subduction zones

Magnesium isotope evidence that accretional vapour loss shapes planetary compositions

It has long been recognized that Earth and other differentiated planetary bodies are chemically fractionated compared to primitive, chondritic meteorites and, by inference, the primordial disk from which they formed. However, it is not known whether the notable volatile depletions of planetary bodies are a consequence of accretion1 or inherited from prior nebular fractionation2. The isotopic compositions of the main constituents of planetary bodies can contribute to this debate3, 4, 5, 6. Here we develop an analytical approach that corrects a major cause of measurement inaccuracy inherent in conventional methods, and show that all differentiated bodies have isotopically heavier magnesium compositions than chondritic meteorites. We argue that possible magnesium isotope fractionation during condensation of the solar nebula, core formation and silicate differentiation cannot explain these observations. However, isotopic fractionation between liquid and vapour, followed by vapour escape during accretionary growth of planetesimals, generates appropriate residual compositions. Our modelling implies that the isotopic compositions of magnesium, silicon and iron, and the relative abundances of the major elements of Earth and other planetary bodies, are a natural consequence of substantial (about 40 per cent by mass) vapour loss from growing planetesimals by this mechanism

Theoretical constraints on the effects of pH, salinity, and temperature on clumped isotope signatures of dissolved inorganic carbon species and precipitating carbonate minerals

The use of carbonate 'clumped isotope' thermometry as a geochemical technique to determine temperature of formation of a carbonate mineral is predicated on the assumption that the mineral has attained an internal thermodynamic equilibrium. If true, then the clumped isotope signature is dependent solely upon the temperature of formation of the mineral without the need to know the isotopic or elemental composition of coeval fluids. However, anomalous signatures can arise under disequilibrium conditions that can make the estimation of temperatures uncertain by several degrees Celsius. Here we use ab initio calculations to examine the potential disequilibrium mineral signatures that may arise from the incorporation of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) species (predominantly aqueous carbonate and bicarbonate ions) into growing crystals without full equilibration with the crystal lattice.We explore theoretically the nature of clumping in the individual DIC species and the composite DIC pool under varying pH, salinity, temperature, and isotopic composition, and speculate about their effects upon the resultant disequilibrium clumping of the precipitates. We also calculate equilibrium clumped signatures for the carbonate minerals calcite, aragonite, and witherite. Our models indicate that each DIC species has a distinct equilibrium clumped isotope signature such that, δ47(H2CO3)>δ47HCO3->δ47(equilibrium calcite)>δ47CO32-, and predict a difference between δ47HCO3-andδ47CO32->0.033‰ at 25°C, and that δ47 (aragonite)>δ47 (calcite)>δ47 (witherite). We define the calcite clumped crossover pH as the pH at which the composite δ47 (DIC pool)=δ47 (equilibrium calcite). If disequilibrium δ47 (calcite) is misinterpreted as equilibrium δ47 (calcite), it is possible to overestimate or underestimate the growth temperature by small but significant amounts. Increases in salinity lower the clumped crossover pH and may cause larger effects. Extreme effects of pH, salinity, and temperature, such as between cold freshwater lakes at high latitudes to hot hypersaline environments, are predicted to have sizeable effects on the clumped isotope composition of aqueous DIC pools.In order to determine the most reliable and efficient modeling methods to represent aqueous dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) species and carbonate minerals, we performed convergence and sensitivity testing on several different levels of theory. We used 4 different techniques for modeling the hydration of DIC: gas phase, implicit solvation (PCM and SMD), explicit solvation (ion with 3 water molecules) and supermolecular clusters (ion plus 21 to 32 water molecules with geometries generated by molecular dynamics). For each solvation technique, we performed sensitivity testing by combining different levels of theory (up to 8 ab initio/hybrid methods, each with up to 5 different sizes of basis sets) to understand the limits of each technique. We looked at the degree of convergence with the most complex (and accurate) models in order to select the most reliable and efficient modeling methods. The B3LYP method combined with the 6-311++G(2d,2p) basis set with supermolecular clusters worked well. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd

Silicon in the Earth's core.

Small isotopic differences between the silicate minerals in planets may have developed as a result of processes associated with core formation, or from evaporative losses during accretion as the planets were built up. Basalts from the Earth and the Moon do indeed appear to have iron isotopic compositions that are slightly heavy relative to those from Mars, Vesta and primitive undifferentiated meteorites (chondrites). Explanations for these differences have included evaporation during the 'giant impact' that created the Moon (when a Mars-sized body collided with the young Earth). However, lithium and magnesium, lighter elements with comparable volatility, reveal no such differences, rendering evaporation unlikely as an explanation. Here we show that the silicon isotopic compositions of basaltic rocks from the Earth and the Moon are also distinctly heavy. A likely cause is that silicon is one of the light elements in the Earth's core. We show that both the direction and magnitude of the silicon isotopic effect are in accord with current theory based on the stiffness of bonding in metal and silicate. The similar isotopic composition of the bulk silicate Earth and the Moon is consistent with the recent proposal that there was large-scale isotopic equilibration during the giant impact. We conclude that Si was already incorporated as a light element in the Earth's core before the Moon formed