Search results for "Vulcan"

The geochemical riddle of “low-salinity gypsum” deposits

2022

International audience; Gypsum makes up about one fifth of giant salt deposits formed by evaporation of seawater throughout Earth’s history. Although thermodynamic calculations and precipitation experiments predict that gypsum precipitates when the salinity of evaporating seawater attains about 110 g kg-1, gypsum deposits of the Mediterranean Salt Giant often bear the geochemical signature of precipitation from less saline water masses. Addressing this geochemical riddle is important because marine gypsum deposition and continental gypsum erosion affect the global carbon cycle. We investigated gypsum deposits formed in the marginal basins of the Mediterranean Sea during the Messinian Salini…

Zirconium, Hafnium and Rare Earths behaviour during the transport in volcanic fluids. Geochemical effects throughout the sublimation and after intera…

This research indicates the fate of Zr, Hf and Rare Earths during their sublimation from the high-temperature gas phase (100° - 420 °C), in volcanic systems associated with different geodynamic regimes, and processes associated with volcanic sublimation representing the last natural “inorganic” interface where a detailed investigation into the behaviour of Rare Earths had never been conducted. The research was carried out in active volcanic systems at Vulcano (Aeolian Islands, Italy), Santorini (Cyclades Islands, Greece), Phlegrean Fields (Italy), Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) and Fogo Island (Cape Verde) where both fumaroles and thermal waters from submarine springs and inland wells wer…

Petrography and high-resolution geochemical records of Lower Jurassic manganese-rich deposits from Monte Mangart, Julian Alps

2016

Deposits with unusually high Mn contents sampled at Monte Mangart in the Julian Alps include organic-rich marlstone and black shale with interbedded manganoan and siliceous limestone, which were deposited during the early Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event. Mn enrichment during that period has been related to global sea-level change coincident with increasing subsidence rate. The formation of Fe-Mn nodules, marking a hardground at the base of the Monte Mangart section, seems to be triggered by release of Mn from remote hydrothermal vents into a region of relatively elevated submarine topography where oxidizing conditions prevailed. However, very high Mn contents in carbonate phases above the har…

Alteration effects of volcanic ash in seawater: Anomalous Y/Ho ratios in coastal waters of the Central Mediterranean sea

2007

This paper presents the results of a study based on data collected during the oceanographic cruise ANSIC 2001 carried out in the Ionian Sea during the explosive activity of Mount Etna in the summer of 2001. Anomalous low values of Y/Ho ratios in seawater suggest extensive scavenging processes on the surfaces of smectitic alteration products, with Y and Ho fractionation controlled by the differences in their electronic configurations and behaviour during solution/surface complexation equilibria. These processes can also be traced through the presence of significant tetrad effects recorded in the chondrite-normalised Rare Earth Elements and Yttrium (YREEs) patterns of suspended particulate ma…

GEOCHIMICA E AMBIENTE

2004

Geogenic carbon transport through karst hydrosystems of Greece

2022

The Earth C-cycle is complex, where endogenic and exogenic sources are interconnected, operating in a multiple spatial and temporal scale (Lee et al., 2019). Non-volcanic CO2 degassing from active tectonic structures is one of the less defined components of this cycle (Frondini et al, 2019). Carbon mass-balance (Chiodini et al., 2000) is a useful tool to quantify the geogenic carbon output from regional karst hydrosystems. This approach has been demonstrated for central Italy and may be valid also for Greece, due to the similar geodynamic settings. Deep degassing in Greece has been ascertained mainly at hydrothermal and volcanic areas, but the impact of geogenic CO2 released by active tecto…

Estimation of the geogenic carbon degassing of Greece

2019

Abstract Greece belongs to the most geodynamically active regions of the world and as such it has to be considered an area of intense geogenic degassing. Here we review all the papers already published in the scientific literature on both the geochemistry of gas manifestations and the CO2 and CH4 release, in an attempt to obtain the first nationwide inventory of the natural output of these carbon gases in Greece. The best studied and most exhaling area is the South Aegean Active Volcanic Arc (SAAVA), which releases more than 1.3 × 105 tons of CO2 per year. Continental Greece, on the contrary, is much less studied but may release CO2 in the same order of magnitude in its eastern-central and …

Distribution of REEs in box-core sediments offshore an industrial area in SE Sicily, Ionian Sea: Evidence of anomalous sedimentary inputs

2009

The distribution of rare earth elements and yttrium (REEs+Y) has been investigated in box-core sediments recovered from four stations in the Sicilian coastal zone seawards of Augusta, one of the most industrialized and contaminated areas in the Mediterranean region. Shale-like REE patterns and low Y/Ho ratios (close to the chondritic ratio) suggest a dominant terrigenous (geogenic) source for REE. Slight enrichment of LREE over the HREE is interpreted as due to preferential adsorptive transfer of LREE from seawater to sediment particles. Samples from offshore cores exhibit slightly positive Gd and negative Ce anomalies. It is here hypothesized that main drivers of anthropogenic Gd flux towa…

Anomalous Behavior of Zirconium and Hafnium in Volcanic Fumarolic Fluids

2022

The Zirconium and Hafnium concentrations in worldwide fumaroles fed by magmatic fluids reveal that the Zr/Hf ratio is inversely related to the temperature of emission. Lower Zr/Hf ratio values below the chondritic signature are found in fluids having the highest temperature while super-chondritic Zr/Hf ratio values are found in lower temperatures. Sub-chondritic values of the Zr/Hf ratio may be related to larger volatility of Hf-chloride gas species with respect to Zr-Cl gas species, while super-chondritic ratios may correspond to fluid-rock processes resulting from cooling of uprising magmatic fluids. We propose that subchondritic Zr/Hf ratio values in fumaroles associated with high temper…

New insights into magma dynamics during last two eruptions of Mount Etna as inferred by geochemical monitoring from 2002 to 2005

2006

Two distinct eruptive events characterize the volcanic activity at Mount Etna during the 2002 to 2005 period. We identified signals of magma ascent preceding these eruptions by geochemical monitoring of both chemical composition and He-isotope ratio of gas emissions from five locations in the peripheral area of the volcano. The geochemical signals are interpreted using the models proposed by Caracausi et al. (2003a, 2003b) and allow identification of episodes of magma ascent and estimation of the pressures of degassing magma. As observed for the 2001 eruption (Caracausi et al., 2003b), magma ascent probably triggered the onset of the 2002–2003 eruption, and minor events of magma ascent were…