scholarly journals Rolling Ironstones from Earth and Mars: Terrestrial Hydrothermal Ooids as a Potential Analogue of Martian Spherules

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 460
Author(s):  
Marcella Di Bella ◽  
Franco Pirajno ◽  
Giuseppe Sabatino ◽  
Simona Quartieri ◽  
Roberto Barbieri ◽  
...  

High-resolution images of Mars from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) rovers revealed mm-size loose haematite spherulitic deposits (nicknamed “blueberries”) similar to terrestrial iron-ooids, for which both abiotic and biotic genetic hypotheses have been proposed. Understanding the formation mechanism of these haematite spherules can thus improve our knowledge on the possible geologic evolution and links to life development on Mars. Here, we show that shape, size, fabric and mineralogical composition of the Martian spherules share similarities with corresponding iron spherules currently forming on the Earth over an active submarine hydrothermal system located off Panarea Island (Aeolian Islands, Mediterranean Sea). Hydrothermal fluids associated with volcanic activity enable these terrestrial spheroidal grains to form and grow. The recent exceptional discovery of a still working iron-ooid source on the Earth provides indications that past hydrothermal activity on the Red Planet is a possible scenario to be considered as the cause of formation of these enigmatic iron grains.

Author(s):  
Andrés Castrillón ◽  
Javier Guerrero

The products of metasomatic alteration (e.g., carbonation) of peridotites are called listvenites. Based on a description of the outcrops in the laterite deposit at Cerro Matoso located in the NW of Colombia, the mineralogical composition confirmed by petrography, and a chemical analysis performed with XRF and WDS/EDS, the previous unit called tachylite is redefined as listvenite. Two types of listvenites are described: listvenite A, with the mineralogical association of quartz + siderite + phyllosilicates + goethite +/- magnetite, and listvenite B, with the association of siderite + phyllosilicates + goethite. Cr-spinel relics accompanied by Mn-siderite and neoblastic textures, indicate their origin from peridotites, where Mn-Fe would have been deposited by hydrothermal fluids. Hydrothermal reducing environments with alkaline fluids and low temperatures should have favored the formation of listvenites that are observed along a fracture zone, oriented WNW-ESE at Pit-1 in Cerro Matoso. Due to exposure to climatic conditions since the Eocene, but definitively since the last Andean Orogeny, listvenites were affected, like all the rocks in the Cerro Matoso deposit, by intense supergene weathering and leaching processes, which could make their true origin unclear.


2019 ◽  
Vol 98 ◽  
pp. 01049
Author(s):  
Yuri Taran ◽  
Elena Kalacheva

Ushishir volcano is located in the middle of the Kuril Arc. The Ushishir crater, a closed bay connected with the ocean by a narrow and shallow strait is characterized by a strong hydrothermal activity. Boiling springs, hot pools, fumaroles and shallow submarine vents are manifestations of a magmatic-seawater hydrothermal system with the discharging solution similar in chemical and isotopic composition to the seafloor hydrothermal fluids. The main features of the Ushishir fluids are: (1) water has close to zero δD and a large oxygen isotopic shift (6 7‰); (2) high boron concentration (~70 ppm); (3) a significant uptake of Ca and Sr from the rock and Ca/Sr higher than that for seawater with 87Sr/86Sr ~0.7037, a bit higher than the rock value (0.7032). The measured onshore discharge of boiling water is ~ 5 kg/s; however, a large plume of the discoloured seawater releasing from the outer submarine slope of the volcano indicates a much higher total mass and heat output.


Geofluids ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Italiano ◽  
Davide Romano ◽  
Cinzia Caruso ◽  
Manfredi Longo ◽  
Andrea Corbo ◽  
...  

Geochemical investigations carried out on submarine hydrothermal fluids vented offshore the Pontine Islands (Tyrrhenian Sea) revealed the existence of gas vents to the W of Zannone Island and SW of Ventotene Island. The geochemical features of the CO2-rich gas samples show a clear mantle-derived signature with3He/4He of 3.72-3.75 Ra and 1.33 Ra at Zannone and Ventotene, respectively. Gas geochemistry denotes how CO2-rich gases undergo fractionation processes due to CO2dissolution to a variable extent favoring enrichment in the less soluble gas species, i.e., CH4, N2, and He. The carbon isotope composition of CO2, expressed asδ13C vs. V-PDB, ranges from -0.71 and -6.16‰ at Zannone to 1.93‰ at Ventotene. Preliminary geothermometric and geobarometric estimations indicate equilibrium temperatures in the range of 150-200°C at Zannone and >200°C at Ventotene besides H2O pressures in the range of 5 bar and 20 bar at Zannone and Ventotene, respectively. Although the latest volcanic activity at the Pontine Archipelago is dated Middle Pleistocene, the combination of the new geochemical information along with geothermometric estimations indicates that cooling magmas are likely releasing enough thermal energy to form an efficient hydrothermal system.


1994 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 541-547
Author(s):  
J. Sýkora ◽  
J. Rybák ◽  
P. Ambrož

AbstractHigh resolution images, obtained during July 11, 1991 total solar eclipse, allowed us to estimate the degree of solar corona polarization in the light of FeXIV 530.3 nm emission line and in the white light, as well. Very preliminary analysis reveals remarkable differences in the degree of polarization for both sets of data, particularly as for level of polarization and its distribution around the Sun’s limb.


Author(s):  
Etienne de Harven

Biological ultrastructures have been extensively studied with the scanning electron microscope (SEM) for the past 12 years mainly because this instrument offers accurate and reproducible high resolution images of cell shapes, provided the cells are dried in ways which will spare them the damage which would be caused by air drying. This can be achieved by several techniques among which the critical point drying technique of T. Anderson has been, by far, the most reproducibly successful. Many biologists, however, have been interpreting SEM micrographs in terms of an exclusive secondary electron imaging (SEI) process in which the resolution is primarily limited by the spot size of the primary incident beam. in fact, this is not the case since it appears that high resolution, even on uncoated samples, is probably compromised by the emission of secondary electrons of much more complex origin.When an incident primary electron beam interacts with the surface of most biological samples, a large percentage of the electrons penetrate below the surface of the exposed cells.


Author(s):  
S. Saito ◽  
H. Todokoro ◽  
S. Nomura ◽  
T. Komoda

Field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) features extremely high resolution images, and offers many valuable information. But, for a specimen which gives low contrast images, lateral stripes appear in images. These stripes are resulted from signal fluctuations caused by probe current noises. In order to obtain good images without stripes, the fluctuations should be less than 1%, especially for low contrast images. For this purpose, the authors realized a noise compensator, and applied this to the FESEM.Fig. 1 shows an outline of FESEM equipped with a noise compensator. Two apertures are provided gust under the field emission gun.


Author(s):  
David C. Joy ◽  
Dennis M. Maher

High-resolution images of the surface topography of solid specimens can be obtained using the low-loss technique of Wells. If the specimen is placed inside a lens of the condenser/objective type, then it has been shown that the lens itself can be used to collect and filter the low-loss electrons. Since the probeforming lenses in TEM instruments fitted with scanning attachments are of this type, low-loss imaging should be possible.High-resolution, low-loss images have been obtained in a JEOL JEM 100B fitted with a scanning attachment and a thermal, fieldemission gun. No modifications were made to the instrument, but a wedge-shaped, specimen holder was made to fit the side-entry, goniometer stage. Thus the specimen is oriented initially at a glancing angle of about 30° to the beam direction. The instrument is set up in the conventional manner for STEM operation with all the lenses, including the projector, excited.


Author(s):  
M. Kelly ◽  
D.M. Bird

It is well known that strain fields can have a strong influence on the details of HREM images. This, for example, can cause problems in the analysis of edge-on interfaces between lattice mismatched materials. An interesting alternative to conventional HREM imaging has recently been advanced by Pennycook and co-workers where the intensity variation in the annular dark field (ADF) detector is monitored as a STEM probe is scanned across the specimen. It is believed that the observed atomic-resolution contrast is correlated with the intensity of the STEM probe at the atomic sites and the way in which this varies as the probe moves from cell to cell. As well as providing a directly interpretable high-resolution image, there are reasons for believing that ADF-STEM images may be less suseptible to strain than conventional HREM. This is because HREM images arise from the interference of several diffracted beams, each of which is governed by all the excited Bloch waves in the crystal.


Author(s):  
Kenneth H. Downing ◽  
Hu Meisheng ◽  
Hans-Rudolf Went ◽  
Michael A. O'Keefe

With current advances in electron microscope design, high resolution electron microscopy has become routine, and point resolutions of better than 2Å have been obtained in images of many inorganic crystals. Although this resolution is sufficient to resolve interatomic spacings, interpretation generally requires comparison of experimental images with calculations. Since the images are two-dimensional representations of projections of the full three-dimensional structure, information is invariably lost in the overlapping images of atoms at various heights. The technique of electron crystallography, in which information from several views of a crystal is combined, has been developed to obtain three-dimensional information on proteins. The resolution in images of proteins is severely limited by effects of radiation damage. In principle, atomic-resolution, 3D reconstructions should be obtainable from specimens that are resistant to damage. The most serious problem would appear to be in obtaining high-resolution images from areas that are thin enough that dynamical scattering effects can be ignored.


Author(s):  
Max T. Otten ◽  
Wim M.J. Coene

High-resolution imaging with a LaB6 instrument is limited by the spatial and temporal coherence, with little contrast remaining beyond the point resolution. A Field Emission Gun (FEG) reduces the incidence angle by a factor 5 to 10 and the energy spread by 2 to 3. Since the incidence angle is the dominant limitation for LaB6 the FEG provides a major improvement in contrast transfer, reducing the information limit to roughly one half of the point resolution. The strong improvement, predicted from high-resolution theory, can be seen readily in diffractograms (Fig. 1) and high-resolution images (Fig. 2). Even if the information in the image is limited deliberately to the point resolution by using an objective aperture, the improved contrast transfer close to the point resolution (Fig. 1) is already worthwhile.


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