Isotopic Gradients Across Fluid–Mineral Boundaries

Abstract

The distribution of stable and radiogenic isotopes within and among phases provides a critical means of quantifying the origin, residence and cycling of materials through terrestrial reservoirs (Wahl and Urey 1935; Epstein and Mayeda 1953; Johnson et al. 2004; Eiler 2007; Porcelli and Baskaran 2011; Wiederhold 2015). While isotopic variability is globally observable, the mechanisms that govern both their range and distribution occur largely at atomic (e.g., radioactive decay), molecular (e.g., the influence of mass on the free energy of atomic bonds) and pore (e.g., diffusive transport to reactive surface) scales. In contrast, the vast majority of isotope ratio measurements are based on sample sizes that aggregate multiple pathways, species and compositions. Inferring process from such macro-scale observations therefore requires unraveling the relative contribution of a variety of potential mechanisms. In effect, the use of isotopes as proxies to infer a specific parameter, such as temperature (Urey 1947) or residence time (Kaufman and Libby 1954), carries the implicit requirement that one mechanism is the primary influence on the measured isotopic composition of the composite sample. In the present chapter, we consider a wide variety of macro-scale observations of isotope partitioning across fluid–solid phase boundaries. For this purpose we define the continuum scale as a representation in which interfaces are averaged over elementary volumes, as opposed to the pore scale in which these interfaces are explicitly resolved. Throughout this review it will be demonstrated that observations of isotope partitioning across fluid–solid boundaries require some representation of the isotopic composition of the solid surface and surrounding fluid distinct from ‘bulk’ or ‘well mixed’ reservoirs. For example, this distinction is necessary in order to (1) quantify the partitioning of radioactive and radiogenic species, (2) describe transport limitations that may impact the macroscopic partitioning of isotope ratios, (3) explain …