Geochemistry International最新文献

The paper discusses modeling the dynamics of nickel concentration in soils, water, and the bottom sediments of lakes caused by atmospheric emissions from the Pechenganickel plant, Kola Peninsula, throughout its whole operation period. The applied technology of balanced identification makes it possible to use a mathematical description of heterogeneous geochemical processes in ecosystems to combine heterogeneous experimental data and build up a computer model with an optimal balance of its complexity and fitting quality of the data. The model is used to analyze the spatial and temporal variability of natural objects in the zone of distribution of atmospheric pollution (nickel) from the Pechenganickel plant. The paper presents and discusses results of this study, including estimates of the retrospective state of the simulated objects (before the start of the intense studies) and a forecast of their dynamics until 2030. According to the model calculations, the intensity of Ni accumulation in the soil and bottom sediments was 2.35 and 4.48 mg/(m² year) during the maximum deposition periods (1980–2005), whereas the model predicts a decrease in the intensity of Ni accumulation in the bottom sediments (0.23 mg/(m² year)) and slow Ni leaching from the soil (0.19 mg/(m² year)) after the shutdown of the plant.

The paper discusses data on the elemental composition and ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr, and δ¹⁸O isotopic ratios of feldspar megacrysts collected from lava flows, tuffs, and cinders of three volcanic fields in the Baikal rift system: Iya–Uda, Vitim, and Khamar-Daban, which are located within the early Precambrian, Riphean, and Paleozoic crustal blocks, respectively. Megacrysts are hosted in trachybasalts in the Iya–Uda and Khamar-Daban fields and in basanites in the Vitim field. Megacrysts belong to the following three compositional groups of minerals: (i) plagioclase in lavas of the Iya–Uda field, (ii) anorthoclase in lava flows, tuffs, and cinders of the Khamar-Daban and Vitim fields, and (iii) sanidine in the Vitim field. Elemental and isotope data suggest that megacrysts crystallized in volcanic chambers at different depth levels: anorthoclase crystallized from the most primitive magma with mantle-derived isotopic signatures at subcrustal depth levels, plagioclases were produced in deep crustal chambers during the interaction between mantle-derived magma and crustal rocks, and sanidine was captured from the upper crustal rocks.

Two sodalite samples (sample I is Na₈Al₆Si₆O₂₄Cl₂⋅0.4H₂O from the Kovdor alkaline ultramafic massif with carbonatites in the Murmansk region, Russia, and sample II is Na₈Al₆Si₆O₂₄Cl₂⋅0.2H₂O from the Bayan Kol nepheline syenite and miaskite massif in the Republic of Tyva) were studied by thermal and electron-microprobe analyses, powder X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence, and by IR, Raman, and ESR spectroscopy. Solution melt calorimetry was applied to determine the enthalpy of formation from elements for water-bearing sodalite samples: −13536 ± 10 (I) and −13503 ± 19 (II) kJ/mol. The enthalpy of formation of sodalite of the theoretical composition Na₈Al₆Si₆O₂₄Cl₂ was evaluated at Δ_fH⁰(298.15 K) = −13446 ± 11 kJ/mol. The data obtained on the enthalpy of formation of sodalite and literature data on its S⁰(298.15 K) were used to calculate the standard Gibbs energies of formation of anhydrous and of water-bearing sodalite.

A model of the thermal evolution of the lithosphere of the West Siberian Basin in the area of Superdeep Well SG-6, which was drilled through the Koltogor–Urengoi graben, is used to numerically estimate the generation of various hydrocarbon (HC) fractions by the Triassic and Jurassic source rocks. The thermal model assumes the emplacement of a sill into the subsurface layers of the basement in the Early Jurassic and hydrothermal activity in the Late Pliocene–Lower Pleistocene, which noticeably impacted the conversion history of the HC potential of the Triassic and Jurassic source rocks. For the Triassic Pur formation, the emplacement of the sill into the subsurface layers of the basement in the Lower Jurassic drastically intensified the conversion of the HC potential to 84% and the degradation of more than 97% of the generated light oil mass. Calculations show that the heavy oil generated by the rocks of the Pur, Togur, and lower horizons of the Tyumen formations has degraded almost completely as a result of secondary cracking, while heavy oil predominates among the generated HC fractions in the upper horizons of the Tyumen Formation and in the rocks of the Bazhenovo Formation. The light oil remaining nowadays in the matrix of the source rocks has completely degraded in the Triassic rocks but makes up much of the HC products in rocks at the bottom of the Togur Formation and the top of the Tyumen Formation. This oil is the dominant in the upper horizons of the Togur Formation and in the bottom part of the Tyumen Formation. According to calculations, gas hydrocarbons account for a significant proportion of HC products in the Togur and Tyumen formations, and they dominate in the Middle Triassic Pur Formation. At the relatively low initial potential of HC generation and a low content of organic matter in the rocks of the Pur, Togur, and Tyumen formations, no primary expulsion threshold of liquid HC has been reached, and the generated liquid HC probably did not leave the rock matrix, while the gaseous HC likely migrated. The threshold of primary expulsion of liquid HC for the Bazhenov rocks was calculated to be reached at about 65 My.