TY - JOUR
T1 - Extreme serpentinization and desulfurization in an early Earth setting
AU - Clay, Patricia L.
AU - Day, James M.D.
AU - Busemann, Henner
AU - Bonnand, Pierre
AU - Burgess, Ray
AU - Hornsey, Richard A.
AU - Ash, Richard D.
AU - Moynier, Frédéric
AU - O'Driscoll, Brian
N1 - Funding Information:
Alan Butcher is thanked for assistance generating the QEMSCAN image in Figure 2. Clay acknowledges UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Leaders Fellowship grant MR/S03465X/1, and O’Driscoll acknowledges National Geographic Explorer grant GEFNE188-16. This work was partly supported by
Publisher Copyright:
© (2023), All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2023/6/1
Y1 - 2023/6/1
N2 - The ca. 3.5 Ga Bon Accord Ni deposit was located in the Barberton Greenstone Belt of the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa, and contained a unique assemblage of Ni-rich minerals including trevorite (NiFe2O4). It was initially interpreted as a metamorphosed extraterrestrial body, recently ruled out by Cr isotope data, and subsequently as a fragment of the Archean Earth's core. More recent suggestions have highlighted similarities between Bon Accord and Archean magmatic sulfide mineralization. We present a geochemical (rare earth element [REE], halogen, and highly siderophile element [HSE] abundance) and isotopic (noble gases, Zn, Cr, and Re-Os) study to elucidate the origin of this enigmatic body. Bon Accord is enriched in the REE relative to primitive mantle (PM), with a pattern resembling that of Aldepleted komatiites. The bulk material has >10 × PM Os and Ir, >100 × PM Ru, Pt, Pd, and Re, and radiogenic 187Os/188Os. Trevorite, silicates, and two bulk-rock samples are consistent with chondritic to sub-chondritic initial 187Os/188Os at the time of formation. The new REE data implicate a komatiite precursor in the formation of Bon Accord, and the HSE data bear striking similarities to those of Ni-enriched Archean magmatic sulfide deposits. Enrichment in the heavier Zn isotopes supports desulfurization of a sulfide (isotopically light) deposit during serpentinization to produce the trevorite-dominated body. We conservatively estimate this process could have mobilized as much as ~9.2 × 104 tonnes of H2S, offering an intriguing possibility for sourcing of the sulfur that fixes the historically important gold mineralization in the Barberton Greenstone Belt.
AB - The ca. 3.5 Ga Bon Accord Ni deposit was located in the Barberton Greenstone Belt of the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa, and contained a unique assemblage of Ni-rich minerals including trevorite (NiFe2O4). It was initially interpreted as a metamorphosed extraterrestrial body, recently ruled out by Cr isotope data, and subsequently as a fragment of the Archean Earth's core. More recent suggestions have highlighted similarities between Bon Accord and Archean magmatic sulfide mineralization. We present a geochemical (rare earth element [REE], halogen, and highly siderophile element [HSE] abundance) and isotopic (noble gases, Zn, Cr, and Re-Os) study to elucidate the origin of this enigmatic body. Bon Accord is enriched in the REE relative to primitive mantle (PM), with a pattern resembling that of Aldepleted komatiites. The bulk material has >10 × PM Os and Ir, >100 × PM Ru, Pt, Pd, and Re, and radiogenic 187Os/188Os. Trevorite, silicates, and two bulk-rock samples are consistent with chondritic to sub-chondritic initial 187Os/188Os at the time of formation. The new REE data implicate a komatiite precursor in the formation of Bon Accord, and the HSE data bear striking similarities to those of Ni-enriched Archean magmatic sulfide deposits. Enrichment in the heavier Zn isotopes supports desulfurization of a sulfide (isotopically light) deposit during serpentinization to produce the trevorite-dominated body. We conservatively estimate this process could have mobilized as much as ~9.2 × 104 tonnes of H2S, offering an intriguing possibility for sourcing of the sulfur that fixes the historically important gold mineralization in the Barberton Greenstone Belt.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85161317586&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1130/G51030.1
DO - 10.1130/G51030.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85161317586
SN - 0091-7613
VL - 51
SP - 602
EP - 606
JO - Geology
JF - Geology
IS - 6
ER -