Multiple sulfur and carbon isotope composition of sediments from the Belingwe Greenstone Belt (Zimbabwe): A biogenic methane regulation on mass independent fractionation of sulfur during the Neoarchean?
Abstract To explore the linkage between mass-independent sulfur isotope fractionation (MIF-S) and δ13Corg excursions during the Neoarchean, as well as the contemporary redox state and biogeochemical cycling of carbon and sulfur, we report the results of a detailed carbon and multiple sulfur (δ34S, δ33S, δ36S) isotopic study of the ∼2.7 Ga Manjeri and ∼2.65 Ga Cheshire formations of the Ngezi Group (Belingwe Greenstone Belt, Zimbabwe). Multiple sulfur isotope data show non-zero Δ33S and Δ36S values for sediments older than 2.4 Ga (i.e. prior to the Great Oxidation Event, GOE), indicating MIF-S thought to be associated with low atmospheric oxygen concentration. However, in several 2.7–2.5 Ga …
Eclogite xenoliths from Kimberley, South Africa — A case study of mantle metasomatism in eclogites
Abstract Eclogite xenoliths from the Kimberley diamond mine dumps were studied for major, trace elements and oxygen isotopes. The suite consists of typical garnet and clinopyroxene rocks as well as kyanite-eclogites and olivine- or orthopyroxene-bearing samples. All samples have Al[6]/Al[4] ratios > 2 which indicate high equilibration pressures, i.e. in the eclogite stability field as opposed to pyroxenites. Most samples are modally and cryptically metasomatized and contain up to 10 vol.% phlogopite plus ilmenite and rutile. Trace element geochemical characteristics of phlogopite and Ti-oxides are similar to those described for metasomatized peridotite xenoliths from the Kaapvaal craton, an…