Bulk geochemistry, mass change and alteration intensity of basalts from ODP Leg 187 sites and survey dredges

Shipboard studies during Ocean Drilling Program Leg 187 (Australian Antarctic Discordance, AAD) suggested that there was no discernible coincidence between the interpreted age of rocks recovered and the intensity of alteration observed. Samples from the oldest sites occupied appeared to exhibit the least overall effects of alteration, and the intensity of alteration varied from site to site. Previous investigations of low-temperature alteration in oceanic basement samples have been restricted by the myopic perspective provided by single drill holes or dredge collections. Combining core samples from Leg 187 and dredge samples from the AAD collection at Oregon State University (USA) offers the unique opportunity to investigate mineral and bulk chemical changes attending alteration of basalt over a range of ages from 0 to 28 Ma. Results of this research indicate that there is a general increase in the intensity of alteration as the basalts age and mosve off axis, but that this relationship is somewhat veiled by the dominating control on alteration intensity dictated by variations in permeability.

Analysis of Mn-nodules from Slupsk Furrow

Rare earth element concentrations in ferromanganese concretions sampled from Slupsk Furrow in the Polish Exclusive Economic Zone are similar to those of concretions from the Gulf of Bothnia. The lack of positive Ce anomalies in the concretions from Slupsk Furrow indicates that they are formed under less oxidizing conditions than spheroidal concretions from the Gulf of Bothnia. Mossbauer studies indicate that poorly crystalline lepidocrosite is the principal iron oxyhydroxide mineral present in these concretions.

Composition of airborne material from yellow snow fallen in the Russian North

Large amounts of dust responsible for bright colors of atmospheric precipitation in the temperate, subpolar and polar zones of the northern hemisphere have been rarely observed. In the twentieth century and in the beginning of the twenty first century in the Northern European Russia such events were not registered up to March 25-26, 2008. At that time in some parts of the Arkhangel'sk region, Komi Republic, and Nenets Autonomous Area atmospheric precipitation as sleet and rain responsible for sand- and saffron colors of ice crust formation on the snow surface was observed. During detailed mineralogical, geochemical, pollen, diatom and meteorological investigations it was established that semidesert and steppe regions of the Northwest Kazakhstan, Volgograd and Astrakhan' regions, and Kalmykia are the main sources of the yellow dust.

Geochemistry of hydrate gas and water at DSDP Hole 84-570

Molecular and isotopic measurements of gas and water obtained from a gas hydrate at Site 570, DSDP Leg 84, are reported. The hydrate appeared to be Structure I and was composed of a solid framework of water molecules enclosing methane and small amounts of ethane and carbon dioxide. Carbon isotopic values for the hydrate-bound methane, ethane, and carbon dioxide were -41 to about -44, -27, and -2.9 per mil, respectively. The d13C-C1 values are consistent with void gas values that were determined to have a biogenic source. A significant thermogenic source was discounted because of high C1/C2 ratios and because the d13C-CO2 values in these sections were also anomalously heavy (or more positive) isotopically, suggesting that the methane was formed biogenically by reduction of heavy CO2 . The isotopically heavy hydrate d13C-C2 is also similar to void gas isotopic compositions and is either a result of low-temperature diagenesis producing heavy C2 in these immature sediment sections or upward migration of deeper thermogenic gas. The salinity of the hydrate water was 2.6 per mil with dDH2O and d18OH2O values of +1 and +2.2 per mil, respectively.

Sedimentology, geochemistry and paleomagnetic of ODP Hole 151-913B

The Eocene and Oligocene epochs (55 to 23 million years ago) comprise a critical phase in Earth history. An array of geological records (Zachos et al., 2001, doi:10.1126/science.1059412; Lear et al., 2000, doi:10.1126/science.287.5451.269; Coxall et al., 2005, doi:10.1038/nature03135; Pekar et al., 2005; doi:10.1130/B25486.1; Strand et al., 2003, doi:10.1016/S0031-0182(03)00396-1) supported by climate modelling (DeConto and Pollard, 2003, doi:10.1038/nature01290) indicates a profound shift in global climate during this interval, from a state that was largely free of polar ice caps to one in which ice sheets on Antarctica approached their modern size. However, the early glaciation history of the Northern Hemisphere is a subject of controversy (Coxall et al., 2005, doi:10.1038/nature03135; Tripati et al., 2005, doi:10.1038/nature03874; Wolf-Welling et al., 1996, doi:10.2973/odp.proc.sr.151.139.1996; Moran et al., 2006, doi:10.1038/nature04800). Here we report stratigraphically extensive ice-rafted debris, including macroscopic dropstones, in late Eocene to early Oligocene sediments from the Norwegian-Greenland Sea that were deposited between about 38 and 30 million years ago. Our data indicate sediment rafting by glacial ice, rather than sea ice, and point to East Greenland as the likely source. Records of this type from one site alone cannot be used to determine the extent of ice involved. However, our data suggest the existence of (at least) isolated glaciers on Greenland about 20 million years earlier than previously documented (Winkler et al., 2002, doi:10.1007/s005310100199), at a time when temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were substantially higher.

Fe-Mn crusts from the Atlantic Ocean

Mineral and chemical compositions of a set of crust samples collected from the North, Central and South Atlantic were examined by means of analytical electron microscopy and ICP-MS, chemical, and microchemical elemental analysis. Vernadite, asbolane, and goethite are dominant mineral phases of the crusts, ferrihydrite is minor, hematite and feroxyhyte are rare. The samples show wide variability in major and trace element contents; however, their characteristic geochemical signatures indicate hydrogenous origin. A comparison between compositions of oceanic hydrogenous and hydrothermal crusts and metalliferous hydrothermal sediments from different ocean areas suggests that the geochemical approach may be insufficient in some cases and fail to identify hydrothermal input in ferromanganese crusts of mixed composition.

Comprehensive inorganic chemistry

Bibliographical footnotes.

Chemical composition of manganese nodules and crusts collected from the Hakurei Maru Cruise GH74-5 in the Eastern Central Pacific Basin

Chemical composition of manganese nodules and crust collected from the Hakurei Maru Cruise GH74-5, September-October, 1974, in the Eastern Central Pacific Basin by the Geological Survey of Japan according to: Analyses and sample manganese deposits data from Cruise GH74-5 (private communication) (unpublished), Scripps Institution of Oceanography. http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg_mmbib/showref.jsp?mmbib=MIZUAA7702.