Neon identifies two billion year old fluid component in Kaapvaal Craton


Neon identifies two billion year old fluid component in Kaapvaal Craton

Lippmann-Pipke, J.; Sherwood Lollar, B.; Niedermann, S.; Stroncik, N. A.; Naumann, R.; van Heerden, E.; Onstott, T. C.

We analysed shallow (to ~1 km) and deep fracture waters (to > 3 km) from the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa for their noble gas isotopic composition. Their neon signature clearly differentiates a group of typical crustal fluids from another one with a significantly enriched nucleogenic neon signal with the highest 21Ne/22Ne ratios (0.160 +/- 0.003) ever reported in groundwater [1]. Fluid inclusions in adjacent rocks yield even higher 21Ne/22Ne ratios between 0.219 and 0.515, consistent with an extrapolated 21Ne/22Ne value of 3.3 +/- 0.2 at 20Ne/22Ne = 0. We show that this enriched nucleogenic neon end-member represents a fluid component that was produced in the fluorine-depleted Archaean formations and trapped in fluid inclusions > 2 Ga ago [1]. The observation of enriched nucleogenic neon signatures in deep fracture water implies the release of this billion year old neon component from the fluid inclusions and its accumulation in exceptionally isolated fracture water systems. The observed association of this Archaean neon signature with H2-hydrocarbon-rich geogases of proposed abiogenic origin [2] dissolved in the same deep groundwater suggests that the fracture systems have also allowed for the accumulation of various products of water-rock reactions throughout geologic times. One of these fracture systems contained a chemolithotrophic, single species ecosystem surviving on radiolytically produced H2 and sulfate completely independent of the surface photosphere [3,4].

[1] Lippmann-Pipke et al. 2011 Chem. Geol. 283, 287-296
[2] Sherwood Lollar et al. 2002 Nature 416(6880) 522-524
[3] Lin L.-H. et al. 2006 Science 314(5798), 479-482
[4] Chivian, D. et al. 2008 Science 322(5899), 275-278

  • Lecture (Conference)
    Goldschmidt 2011, 14.-19.08.2011, Prague, Czech Republic

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Publ.-Id: 15638