Magnesium-isotope fractionation during low-Mg calcite precipitation in a limestone cave - Field study and experiments |
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| Authors: | A Immenhauser D Buhl A Niedermayr M Dietzel |
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| Institution: | a Ruhr-University Bochum, Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Geophysics, Universitätsstrasse 150, D-44801 Bochum, Germany
b Institute of Applied Geosciences, Graz University of Technology, Rechbauerstrasse 12, A-8010 Graz, Austria |
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| Abstract: | The chemical and isotopic composition of speleothem calcite and particularly that of stalagmites and flowstones is increasingly exploited as an archive of past environmental change in continental settings. Despite intensive research, including modelling and novel approaches, speleothem data remain difficult to interpret. A possible way foreword is to apply a multi-proxy approach including non-conventional isotope systems. For the first time, we here present a complete analytical dataset of magnesium isotopes (δ26Mg) from a monitored cave in NW Germany (Bunker Cave). The data set includes δ26Mg values of loess-derived soil above the cave (−1.0 ± 0.5‰), soil water (−1.2 ± 0.5‰), the carbonate hostrock (−3.8 ± 0.5‰), dripwater in the cave (−1.8 ± 0.2‰), speleothem low-Mg calcite (stalactites, stalagmites; −4.3 ± 0.6‰), cave loam (−0.6 ± 0.1‰) and runoff water (−1.8 ± 0.1‰) in the cave, respectively. Magnesium-isotope fractionation processes during weathering and interaction between soil cover, hostrock and solute-bearing soil water are non-trivial and depend on a number of variables including solution residence times, dissolution rates, adsorption effects and potential neo-formation of solids in the regolith and the carbonate aquifer. Apparent Mg-isotope fractionation between dripwater and speleothem low-Mg calcite is about 1000lnαMg-cc-Mg(aq) = −2.4‰. A similar Mg-isotope fractionation (1000lnαMg-cc-Mg(aq) ≈ −2.1‰) is obtained by abiogenic precipitation experiments carried out at aqueous Mg/Ca ratios and temperatures close to cave conditions. Accordingly, 26Mg discrimination during low-Mg calcite formation in caves is highly related to inorganic fractionation effects, which may comprise dehydration of Mg2+ prior to incorporation into calcite, surface entrapment of light isotopes and reaction kinetics. Relevance of kinetics is supported by a significant negative correlation of Mg-isotope fractionation with the precipitation rate for inorganic precipitation experiments. |
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