Atmospheric sulfur is recycled to the crystalline continental crust during supercontinent formation

Crystal LaFlamme (), Marco L. Fiorentini, Mark D. Lindsay and Thi Hao Bui
Additional contact information
Crystal LaFlamme: Université Laval
Marco L. Fiorentini: University of Western Australia
Mark D. Lindsay: University of Western Australia
Thi Hao Bui: McGill University

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract The sulfur cycle across the lithosphere and the role of this volatile element in the metasomatism of the mantle at ancient cratonic boundaries are poorly constrained. We address these knowledge gaps by tracking the journey of sulfur in the assembly of a Proterozoic supercontinent using mass independent isotope fractionation (MIF-S) as an indelible tracer. MIF-S is a signature that was imparted to supracrustal sulfur reservoirs before the ~2.4 Ga Great Oxidation Event. The spatial representation of multiple sulfur isotope data indicates that successive Proterozoic granitoid suites preserve Δ33S up to +0.8‰ in areas adjacent to Archean cratons. These results indicate that suturing of cratons began with devolatilisation of slab-derived sediments deep in the lithosphere. This process transferred atmospheric sulfur to a mantle source reservoir, which was tapped intermittently for over 300 million years of magmatism. Our work tracks pathways and storage of sulfur in the lithosphere at craton margins.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06691-3 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-06691-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-06691-3

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().