0000000001203645
AUTHOR
Kathrin Abraham
Coupled silicon-oxygen isotope fractionation traces Archaean silicification
International audience; Silica alteration zones and cherts are a conspicuous feature of Archaean greenstone belts worldwide and provide evidence of extensive mobilisation of silica in the marine environment of the early Earth. In order to understand the process(es) of silicification we measured the silicon and oxygen isotope composition of sections of variably silicified basalts and overlying bedded cherts from the Theespruit, Hooggenoeg and Kromberg Formations of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa.The δ30Si and δ18O values of bulk rock increase with increasing amount of silicification from unsilicified basalts (-0.64‰ 30Si 18O 30Si and δ18O values as high as + 0.81‰ and + 15.6‰, r…
δ30Si and δ29Si Determinations on USGS BHVO-1 and BHVO-2 Reference Materials with a New Configuration on a Nu Plasma Multi-Collector ICP-MS
We report silicon isotopic determinations for USGS rock reference materials BHVO-1 and BHVO-2 using a Nu Plasma multi-collector (MC)-ICP-MS, upgraded with a new adjustable entrance slit, to obtain medium resolution, as well as a stronger primary pump and newly designed sampler and skimmer cones ("B" cones). These settings, combined with the use of collector slits, allowed a resolution to be reached that was sufficient to overcome the (NO)-N-14-O-16 and N-14(2) interferences overlying the Si-30 and the Si-28 peaks, respectively, in an earlier set-up. This enabled accurate measurement of both delta Si-30 and delta Si-29. The delta value is expressed in per mil variation relative to the NBS 28…