TO THE 90TH ANNIVERSARY OF IVAR MURDMAA

On August 6, 2021, the chief researcher of the IO RAS, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Professor Ivar Oskarovich Murdmaa turned 90 years old. The main focus of I.O. Murdmaa is the study of bottom sediments of seas and oceans, their lithology, mineralogy, deposition processes, facies and formations, the theory of oceanic sedimentogenesis. He first distinguished marine volcanoterrigenous sediments and described the facies variability of modern sediments of island arcs. Ivar Murdmaa is known for his studies in mineralogy of oceanic sediments, processes of pelagic sedimentogenesis and associated iron-manganese nodules formation. Studying sediment formation in rift zones of mid-ocean ridges, he identified a new genetic type of sediments named edaphogeonus sediments, elaborated mineralogical criteria for their recognition and formation processes. In recent years I.O. Murdmaa is actively developing the theoretical concept of "sedimentosphere", paying special attention to a new direction – the study of the erosion-accumulative activity of bottom currents and the formation of contourites.

The potential of seaweed cultivation to achieve carbon neutrality and mitigate deoxygenation and eutrophication

Carbon neutrality has been proposed due to the increasing concerns about the consequences of rising atmospheric CO2. Previous studies overlooked the role of lost particle organic carbon (POC) and excreted dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from seaweed cultivation in carbon sequestration, that is to say, long term carbon storage in the oceanic sediments and in the water. This study assessed the potential of seaweed cultivation to achieve carbon neutrality of China by 2060 using a new method that included lost POC and excreted DOC. Based on the seaweed production in the years 2015-2019 in China, harvested seaweed removed 605,193 tonnes of carbon, 70,304 tonnes of nitrogen and 8,619 tonnes of phosphorus from seawaters annually; farmed seaweed sequestrated 343,766 tonnes of carbon and generated 2530,558 tonnes of oxygen annually. Among the seven farmed seaweeds, Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis has the highest capacities for carbon removal (9.58 tonnes ha-1 yr-1) and sequestration (5.44 tonnes ha-1 yr-1) and thus has the smallest cultivation area required to sequestrate 2.5 Gt CO2 that is annually required to achieve China's carbon neutrality goal by 2060. The O2 generated by seaweed cultivation could increase dissolved oxygen in seawaters (0-3 m deep) by 21% daily, which could effectively counteract deoxygenation in seawaters. Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis also has the highest N removal capacity while Saccharina japonica has the highest P removal capacity. To completely absorb the N and P released from the fish mariculture, a production level or a cultivation area two and three times larger (assuming productivity remains unchanged) would be required. This study indicates that seaweed cultivation could play an important role in achieving carbon neutrality and mitigating deoxygenation and eutrophication in seawaters. Cultivation cost could be offset to some extent by increased sales of the harvest parts of the seaweed for food and biofuel.

A Comprehensive Review on CO2/N2 Mixture Injection for Methane Gas Recovery in Hydrate Reservoirs

Clathrate hydrates are non-stoichiometric compounds of water and gas molecules coexisting at relatively low temperatures and high pressures. The gas molecules are trapped in cage-like structures of the water molecules by hydrogen bonds. There are several hydrate deposits in permafrost and oceanic sediments with an enormous amount of energy. The energy content of methane in hydrate reservoirs is considered to be up to 50 times that of conventional petroleum resources, with about 2,500 to 20,000 trillion m3 of methane gas. More than 220 hydrate deposits in permafrost and oceanic sediments have been identified to date. The exploration and production of these deposits to recover the trapped methane gas could overcome the world energy challenges and create a sustainable energy future. Furthermore, global warming is a major issue facing the world at large and it is caused by greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide. As a result, researchers and organizations have proposed various methods of reducing the emission of carbon dioxide gas. One of the proposed methods is the geological storage of carbon dioxide in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, oceanic sediments, deep saline aquifers, and depleted hydrate deposits. Studies have shown that there is the possibility of methane gas production and carbon dioxide storage in hydrate reservoirs using the injection of carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas mixture. However, the conventional hydrocarbon production methods cannot be used for the hydrate reservoirs due to the nature of these reservoirs. In addition, thermal stimulation and depressurization are not effective methods for methane gas production and carbon sequestration in hydrate-bearing sediments. Therefore, the gas replacement method for methane production and carbon dioxide storage in clathrate hydrate is investigated in this paper. The research studies (experiments, modeling/simulation, and field tests) on CO2/N2 gas mixture injection for the optimization of methane gas recovery in hydrate reservoirs are reviewed. It was discovered that the injection of the gas mixture enhanced the recovery process by replacing methane gas in the small and large cages of the hydrate. Also, the presence of N2 molecules significantly increased fluid injectivity and methane recovery rate. In addition, a significant amount of free water was not released and the hydrate phase was stable during the replacement process. It is an effective method for permanent storage of carbon dioxide in the hydrate layer. However, further research studies on the effects of gas composition, particle size, and gas transport on the replacement process and swapping rate are required.

Physical and Mechanical Properties of Deep Oceanic Sediments Cored from the Bottom of Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench

The deep oceanic sediments were collected from the Challenger Deep in the southwestern part of the Mariana Trench. Considering the salt in the pore water, a modified method for determining the physical and mechanical properties of the deep-sea sediments was proposed, by which the geological engineering indices were measured and corrected. Through the scanning electronic microscope (SEM), the microstructures of the sediments were found to be composed of flocculation, with a large number of diatom debris and empty shells of organism around it. As a consequence, the porosity and compressibility are high; internal friction angle and cohesion are low. Besides high water content, high porosity, high liquid limit, high plasticity, high consolidation coefficient, low compressive modulus, low shear strength, low density, and low specific gravity, the deep-sea mining machine may slip and subside. This research can improve the understanding of the deep-sea sedimentary environment of the Challenger Deep in the southwestern part of the Mariana Trench and provide an essential reference for the parameter calibration as well as the basis for walking-characteristic study and optimization design of the deep-sea mining vehicle.

Modeling magnetotelluric tippers on a sphere with particular emphasis on ocean induction effect and effect from oceanic sediments

In the past three decades, an immense amount of long-period magnetic field data (with periods of measurements from months to years) has been collected worldwide, either inland or at sea bottom. This makes it tempting to estimate from the data magnetotelluric (MT) vertical transfer functions -tippers - and further probe with them the three-dimensional distribution of electrical conductivity on a global or semi-global/continental scale. Such problem setup requires modeling MT responses in spherical geometry. It is known that MT impedances in spherical coordinates can be modeled using different polarizations of a uniform external magnetic field. As for tippers, one needs another type of excitation because the uniform external magnetic field of any polarization contains a non-zero radial component. In the paper, we elaborate a model of the source, which leads to valid tippers on a whole sphere. We also present an accurate and computationally efficient solver to calculate the electromagnetic field and responses in a spherical shell or a part thereof. The solver, based on nested integral equations, was used to calculate high-resolution tippers regionally and globally, taking into account realistic oceans and Earth’s conductivity. In particular, we investigate an effect in tippers from bathymetry and oceanic sediments, both at the Earth's surface and sea bottom sediments.

Interplanetary Dust Particles

Scattered sunlight from interplanetary dust particles, mostly produced by comets and asteroids, orbiting the Sun are visible at dusk or dawn as the Zodiacal Cloud. Impacts onto the space-exposed surfaces of Earth-orbiting satellites indicate that, in the current era, thousands of tons of interplanetary dust enters the Earth’s atmosphere every year. Some particles vaporize forming meteors while others survive atmospheric deceleration and settle to the surface of the Earth. NASA has collected interplanetary dust particles from the Earth’s stratosphere using high-altitude aircraft since the mid-1970s. Detailed characterization of these particles shows that some are unique samples of Solar System and presolar material, never affected by the aqueous and thermal processing that overprints the record of formation from the Solar Protoplanetary Disk in the meteorites. These particles preserve the record of grain and dust formation from the disk. This record suggests that many of the crystalline minerals, dominated by crystalline silicates (olivine and pyroxene) and Fe-sulfides, condensed from gas in the inner Solar System and were then transported outward to the colder outer Solar System where carbon-bearing ices condensed on the surfaces of the grains. Irradiation by solar ultraviolet light and cosmic rays produced thin organic coatings on the grain surfaces that likely aided in grain sticking, forming the first dust particles of the Solar System. This continuous, planet-wide rain of interplanetary dust particles can be monitored by the accumulation of 3He, implanted into the interplanetary dust particles by the Solar Wind while they were in space, in oceanic sediments. The interplanetary dust, which is rich in organic carbon, may have contributed important pre-biotic organic matter important to the development of life to the surface of the early Earth.

Petrographic, Geochemical and Isotopic (Sr–Nd–Pb–Os) Study of Plio-Quaternary Volcanics and the Tertiary Basement in the Jorullo-Tacámbaro Area, Michoacán-Guanajuato Volcanic Field, Mexico

The origin of the large diversity of rock types erupted along the subduction-related Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt (TMVB) remains highly debated. In particular, several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the contemporary eruption of calc-alkaline and alkaline magmas along the belt. The Michoacán-Guanajuato Volcanic Field (MGVF) is an atypical, vast region of monogenetic activity located in the western-central part of the TMVB. Here we present new petrographic, geochemical, and isotopic (Sr–Nd–Pb–Os) data on recent volcanics in the Jorullo-Tacámbaro area that is the closest to the oceanic trench. TMVB-related volcanics in this area are Plio-Quaternary (<5 Ma) and mainly form a calc-alkaline series from basalts to dacites, with rare (<5 vol. %) alkaline rocks that range from trachybasalts to trachydacites, and transitional samples. Crystal textures are consistent with rapid crystallization at shallow depth and processes of mixing of similar magma batches (magma recharge). All of the samples exhibit an arc-type trace element pattern. Alkaline and transitional magmas have higher Na2O and K2O, lower Al2O3, and higher concentrations in incompatible elements (e.g. Sr, K, Ba, Th, Ce, P) compared to calc-alkaline rocks. Calc-alkaline rocks are similar isotopically to transitional and alkaline samples, except for a few low 87Sr/86Sr samples. Sr, Nd and Pb isotopes do not correlate with MgO or 187Os/188Os, indicating that they were not significantly influenced by crustal contamination. Isotopic and trace-element systematics suggest that the Tacámbaro magmas are produced by melting of a mantle wedge fluxed by fluids derived from a mixture of subducted sediments and altered oceanic crust. Alkaline and transitional magmas can be derived from a lower degree of partial melting of a similar source to that of the calc-alkaline rocks, whereas the few low 87Sr/86Sr calc-alkaline rocks require a lower proportion of fluid derived from oceanic sediments and crust. Volcanism at the trenchward edge of the MGVF was thus driven purely by subduction during the last 5 Ma, hence discarding slab rollback in this sector of the TMVB.

Partial melting of oceanic sediments in subduction zones and its contribution to the petrogenesis of peraluminous granites in the Chinese Altai

Late Carboniferous magmatism in the Chinese Altai provides an important view of geodynamic processes active during crustal growth in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). In this study, five representative peraluminous granite plutons from the Chinese Altai were selected for systematic geochronological, geochemical and Sr–Nd–Hf isotopic analyses (Table 1). These granites were emplaced between 449 and 327 Ma in an active subduction zone, and have moderate to high SiO2 (66.54–76.13 wt%), moderate Na2O+K2O (6.27–7.66 wt%), and high Al2O3 contents (12.43–16.18 wt%). All granite samples in this study showed significant decoupling of the Nd and Hf isotope systems. Results show negative εNd(t) values (−3.3 to −0.9), and predominantly positive εHf(t) values (+0.24 to +8.01, n=57) except for a few negative εHf(t) values (−7.44 to −0.03, n=9), high Mg# values (28.69–53.33), high Nd/Hf ratios (4.26–43.57), and enrichment of large-ion lithophile elements (LILEs; e.g. Pb, Th, and U), suggesting that the granites were derived from the partial melting of oceanic sediments and the associated mantle wedge, with fractionation of plagioclase, K-feldspar and biotite. In situ zircon Hf isotopic analyses yield negative εHf(t) values from −30.6 to −13.7 for the zircon xenocrysts. The U–Pb ages and Hf isotopic ratios of these zircon xenocrysts were probably inherited from oceanic sediments. Zircon saturation temperatures suggest that these peraluminous granites were emplaced at 537–765°C. We propose that: (1) the Nd isotopic system more faithfully reflects the source of peraluminous magmas in the Chinese Altai than the Hf isotopic system, and (2) the oceanic sediment recycling was an important process during continental growth in the CAOB.