A key role for green rust in the Precambrian oceans and the genesis of iron formations

Halevy, Itay; Alesker, M.; Schuster, Elaine M.; Popovitz‐Biro, Ronit; Feldman, Yishai

doi:10.1038/ngeo2878

Cited by 176 publications

(177 citation statements)

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“…Siderite forms under certain unusual environmental conditions, often linked to changes in pH, changes in p CO 2 , or changes in microbial metabolism (Dong, ; Konhauser, Newman, & Kappler, ; Van Lith, Warthmann, Vasconcelos, & McKenzie, ; Sanchez‐Roman et al, ; Sanchez‐Roman, Puente‐Sanchez, Parro, & Amils, ; Xiouzhu, Unfei, & Huaiyan, ). In particular, the presence of siderite in the geological record has been used as an environmental indicator for conditions at Earth's surface (e.g., levels of atmospheric pCO 2 and O 2 , redox conditions, and iron cycling) at various points in Earth history, especially during the Archean Eon and Proterozoic Eon (Bachan & Kump, ; Canfield et al, ; Halevy, Alesker, Schuster, Popovitz‐Biro, & Feldman, ; Holland, ; Konhauser et al, ; Ohmoto, Watanabe, & Kumazawa, ; Planavsky et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The microbially driven formation of siderite in salt marsh sediments

et al. 2019

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We employ complementary field and laboratory‐based incubation techniques to explore the geochemical environment where siderite concretions are actively forming and growing, including solid‐phase analysis of the sediment, concretion, and associated pore fluid chemistry. These recently formed siderite concretions allow us to explore the geochemical processes that lead to the formation of this less common carbonate mineral. We conclude that there are two phases of siderite concretion growth within the sediment, as there are distinct changes in the carbon isotopic composition and mineralogy across the concretions. Incubated sediment samples allow us to explore the stability of siderite over a range of geochemical conditions. Our incubation results suggest that the formation of siderite can be very rapid (about two weeks or within 400 hr) when there is a substantial source of iron, either from microbial iron reduction or from steel material; however, a source of dissolved iron is not enough to induce siderite precipitation. We suggest that sufficient alkalinity is the limiting factor for siderite precipitation during microbial iron reduction while the lack of dissolved iron is the limiting factor for siderite formation if microbial sulfate reduction is the dominant microbial metabolism. We show that siderite can form via heated transformation (at temperature 100°C for 48 hr) of calcite and monohydrocalcite seeds in the presence of dissolved iron. Our transformation experiments suggest that the formation of siderite is promoted when carbonate seeds are present.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The microbially driven formation of siderite in salt marsh sediments

et al. 2019

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“…Brucite (Mg[OH] 2 ) is a major initial component of Lost City mounds, owing to the high concentration of Mg in the present-day ocean, whereas Hadean mounds would have had an iron-dominated mineralogical composition. The Hadean ocean was carbonic and rich in iron and other transition metals, so the porous precipitate mounds would have comprised amorphous to microcrystalline brucite-structured iron oxyhydroxides or green rusts (e.g., *Fe II 4 Fe III 2 (OH) 12 [CO 3 ] 3H 2 O) along with the iron sulfides mackinawite and greigite, dosed with nickel, cobalt, and molybdenum (Russell and Hall, 1997;Génin et al, 2005Génin et al, , 2006Mloszewska et al, 2012;Nitschke and Russell, 2013;Russell et al, 2014;White et al, 2015;Tosca et al, 2016;Halevy et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nitrogen Oxides in Early Earth's Atmosphere as Electron Acceptors for Life's Emergence

et al. 2017

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We quantify the amount of nitrogen oxides (NOx) produced through lightning and photochemical processes in the Hadean atmosphere to be available in the Hadean ocean for the emergence of life. Atmospherically generated nitrate (NO 3 -) and nitrite (NO 2 -) are the most attractive high-potential electron acceptors for pulling and enabling crucial redox reactions of autotrophic metabolic pathways at submarine alkaline hydrothermal vents. The Hadean atmosphere, dominated by CO 2 and N 2 , will produce nitric oxide (NO) when shocked by lightning. Photochemical reactions involving NO and H 2 O vapor will then produce acids such as HNO, HNO 2 , HNO 3 , and HO 2 NO 2 that rain into the ocean. There, they dissociate into or react to form nitrate and nitrite. We present new calculations based on a novel combination of early-Earth global climate model and photochemical modeling, and we predict the flux of NOx to the Hadean ocean. In our 0.1-, 1-, and 10-bar pCO 2 models, we calculate the NOx delivery to be 2.4 · 10 . After only tens of thousands to tens of millions of years, these NOx fluxes are expected to produce sufficient (micromolar) ocean concentrations of high-potential electron acceptors for the emergence of life.

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“…Being highly reactive towards each other, iron(II) and sulphide precipitate as poorly crystalline ferrous sulphide if their concentrations reach supersaturation (Rickard & Luther, 2007) and transform further into more stable iron(II) sulphides (i.e., pyrite or pyrrhotite) (Rickard, 2006;Rickard & Luther, 2007 (Luther & Rickard, 2005). Our Mössbauer results indicate the narrow paramagnetic doublet at 77 K to potentially account for an FeS phase, suggesting locally formed iron(II) and sulphide from iron(III) and sulphate reduction that proceed in close association in red and white flocs to reach supersaturation and hence to result in the formation of different have included green rust (Halevy, Alesker, Schuster, Popovitz-Biro, & Feldman, 2017), as well as iron(II) sulphides that precipitated directly from the ferro-euxinic surface ocean waters (Canfield, 1998;Lyons, 2008). These iron sulphides likely settled together with red floc-like particles and transformed over time to more stable iron(II)…”

Section: Iron Redox Speciation In the Arvadi Spring And Iron(ii) Bimentioning

confidence: 70%

“…These particles likely also contained ferrous minerals, which resulted from dissimilatory iron(III) reduction. Respective iron(II) phases could have included green rust (Halevy, Alesker, Schuster, Popovitz‐Biro, & Feldman, ), as well as iron(II) sulphides that precipitated directly from the ferro‐euxinic surface ocean waters (Canfield, ; Lyons, ). These iron sulphides likely settled together with red floc‐like particles and transformed over time to more stable iron(II) sulphides (e.g., pyrite).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A case study for late Archean and Proterozoic biogeochemical iron‐ and sulphur cycling in a modern habitat—the Arvadi Spring

et al. 2018

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As a consequence of Earth's surface oxygenation, ocean geochemistry changed from ferruginous (iron(II)-rich) into more complex ferro-euxinic (iron(II)-sulphide-rich) conditions during the Paleoproterozoic. This transition must have had profound implications for the Proterozoic microbial community that existed within the ocean water and bottom sediment; in particular, iron-oxidizing bacteria likely had to compete with emerging sulphur-metabolizers. However, the nature of their coexistence and interaction remains speculative. Here, we present geochemical and microbiological data from the Arvadi Spring in the eastern Swiss Alps, a modern model habitat for ferro-euxinic transition zones in late Archean and Proterozoic oceans during high-oxygen intervals, which enables us to reconstruct the microbial community structure in respective settings for this geological era. The spring water is oxygen-saturated but still contains relatively elevated concentrations of dissolved iron(II) (17.2 ± 2.8 μM) and sulphide (2.5 ± 0.2 μM) with simultaneously high concentrations of sulphate (8.3 ± 0.04 mM). Solids consisting of quartz, calcite, dolomite and iron(III) oxyhydroxide minerals as well as sulphur-containing particles, presumably elemental S , cover the spring sediment. Cultivation-based most probable number counts revealed microaerophilic iron(II)-oxidizers and sulphide-oxidizers to represent the largest fraction of iron- and sulphur-metabolizers in the spring, coexisting with less abundant iron(III)-reducers, sulphate-reducers and phototrophic and nitrate-reducing iron(II)-oxidizers. 16S rRNA gene 454 pyrosequencing showed sulphide-oxidizing Thiothrix species to be the dominating genus, supporting the results from our cultivation-based assessment. Collectively, our results suggest that anaerobic and microaerophilic iron- and sulphur-metabolizers could have coexisted in oxygenated ferro-sulphidic transition zones of late Archean and Proterozoic oceans, where they would have sustained continuous cycling of iron and sulphur compounds.

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A key role for green rust in the Precambrian oceans and the genesis of iron formations

Cited by 176 publications

References 47 publications

The microbially driven formation of siderite in salt marsh sediments

The microbially driven formation of siderite in salt marsh sediments

Nitrogen Oxides in Early Earth's Atmosphere as Electron Acceptors for Life's Emergence

A case study for late Archean and Proterozoic biogeochemical iron‐ and sulphur cycling in a modern habitat—the Arvadi Spring

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