首页|Fractionation of germanium and silicon during scavenging from seawater by marine Fe (oxy)hydroxides: Evidence from hydrogenetic ferromanganese crusts and nodules

Fractionation of germanium and silicon during scavenging from seawater by marine Fe (oxy)hydroxides: Evidence from hydrogenetic ferromanganese crusts and nodules

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Germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si) are an element pair which shows rather coherent behaviour in many geochemical systems. In aqueous systems and in the critical zone, however, Ge and Si may fractionate from each other, leading to slight differences between the Ge/Si ratios of continental crust, river water and seawater. We here show that even stronger fractionation of the Ge-Si couple occurs within seawater during the formation of hydrogenetic ferromanganese (Fe-Mn) crusts and nodules. We determined Ge/Si ratios of hydrogenetic Fe-Mn crusts from the Pacific Ocean following a new analytical approach using laser-ablation ICP-MS on nanoparticulate tablets prepared from the Fe-Mn crust material. Data quality was monitored and demonstrated by repetitive measurements of Fe-Mn nodule reference material (RM) NOD-P1 from the Pacific Ocean (Ge/Si-wt: 16.8 x 10(-6) g/g; Ge/Si-mol: 6.47 x 10(-6) mol/mol), which is the only RM for which high-quality Ge-Si reference data are available. We also report Ge/Si ratios for Fe-Mn nodule RMs NOD-Al from the Atlantic Ocean (Ge/Si-wt: 24.9 x 10(-6); Ge/Si-mol: 9.6 x 10(-6)) and for JMn-1 from the Pacific Ocean (Ge/Si-wt: 17.9 x 10(-6); Ge/Si-mol: 6.9 x 10(-6)). The Ge/Si-wt ratios of the hydrogenetic Fe-Mn crusts from the Pacific Ocean range from 13.2 x 10(-6) to 33.5 x 10(-6) (Ge/Si-mol: 5.1 x 10(-6) to 13 x 10(-6)). The Ge/Si ratios of both Fe-Mn crusts and nodules are significantly higher than those of ambient seawater (ca. Ge/Si-wt : 1.7 x 10(-6); Ge/Si-mol: 0.7 x 10(-6)). Their Ge/Si ratios are also well-above those of potential (alumino)silicate detritus. Hence, these high Ge/Si ratios reveal fractionation of Ge and Si during scavenging from seawater by the iron (oxy)hydroxide component in Fe-Mn crusts, and do not result from the presence of detrital material in the chemical precipitate. Their high Ge/Si ratios relative to seawater also suggest that despite higher complexation constants with organic ligands for Ge than Si, dissolved organic ligands do not control marine Ge-Si fractionation via preferential retention of Ge in seawater.

Germanium-silicon fractionationFerromanganese crustsLaser ablation HR-ICP-MSCritical metalsMissing Ge-sinkGEOCHEMICAL REFERENCE SAMPLESRARE-EARTH-ELEMENTSINORGANIC GERMANIUMPHASE ASSOCIATIONSGE/SI RATIOGEOCEANSIADSORPTIONTRANSPORT

Ernst, David M.、Schier, Katharina、Garbe-Schoenberg, Dieter、Bau, Michael

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Jacobs Univ Bremen

2022

Chemical geology

Chemical geology

EISCI
ISSN:0009-2541
年,卷(期):2022.595
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