Mineralogical characterization of individual growth structures of Mn-nodules with different Ni+Cu content from the central Pacific Ocean
Abstract
The mineralogy of manganese nodules from the German license area in the eastern Clarion and Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the central Pacific Ocean was studied using X‑ray diffraction. Their individual nanometer to micrometer thick genetically different (hydrogenetic/diagenetic) layer growth structures were investigated using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Relationships between the mineral phases and metal content (e.g., Ni+Cu) were assessed with electron microprobe analyzer.
The main manganese phase detected in nodules of this study was vernadite, a nanocrystalline and turbostratic phyllomanganate with hexagonal layer symmetry. In layer growth structures of hydrogenetic origin, Fe-vernadite dominates. Layer growth structures of suboxic-diagenetic origin contain three vernadite forms, which are the main Ni and Cu carriers. These Mn-phases were identified on the basis of their structural layer-to-layer distances (7 and 10 Å) and on their capacity to retain these distances when heated. The first form is 7 Å vernadite, which is minor component of the nodules. The second is a thermally unstable ~10 Å vernadite collapsing between room temperature and 100 °C, and the third is a thermally stable ~10 Å vernadite collapsing between 100 and 300 °C. Todorokite was neither detected in bulk nodules nor in any of the individual suboxic-diagenetic growth structures. Because the mineralogical composition of the nodule is quite homogeneous (only different vernadite-types), it is suggested that the content of Ni and Cu in the individual growth structures is controlled by their availability in the environment during individual growth phases.
A profile through a CCZ nodule revealed that the thermal stability of the vernadites change from younger (thermally unstable vernadites, collapsing <100 °C) to older growth structures (thermally stable 10 Å vernadites, collapsing >100 °C) of the nodule accompanied with changes in type and amount of interlayer cations (e.g., Mg, Na, Ca, K). The stability of the vernadites is probably due to re-organization and incorporation of metals within the interlayer of the crystal structure.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Articles in the same Issue
- On understanding the structure and composition of crystals
- Stable and metastable silicate liquid immiscibility in ferrobasalts
- When was the Earth’s conveyor belt set in motion?
- Trace element partitioning into sulfide: How lithophile elements become chalcophile and vice versa
- Petrology on Mars
- Hf and Nd isotope systematics of early Archean komatiites from surface sampling and ICDP drilling in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa
- Quasicrystals at extreme conditions: The role of pressure in stabilizing icosahedral Al63Cu24Fe13 at high temperature
- Tracking the thermal decomposition of plasma-sprayed hydroxylapatite
- Experimental constraints on bubble formation and growth during magma ascent: A review
- Ankerite grains with dolomite cores: A diffusion chronometer for low- to medium-grade regionally metamorphosed clastic sediments
- Crystal structure, high-pressure, and high-temperature behavior of carbonates in the K2Mg(CO3)2–Na2Mg(CO3)2 join
- Temperature micro-mapping in oscillatory-zoned chlorite: Application to study of a green-schist facies fault zone in the Pyrenean Axial Zone (Spain)
- Micro- and nano-characterization of Zn-clays in nonsulfide supergene ores of southern Peru
- Mineralogical characterization of individual growth structures of Mn-nodules with different Ni+Cu content from the central Pacific Ocean
- The magma plumbing system of the Emeishan large igneous province and its role in basaltic magma differentiation in a continental setting
- Weathering of the Ethiopian volcanic province: A new weathering index to characterize and compare soils
- Recommended mineral-melt partition coefficients for FRTEs (Cu), Ga, and Ge during mantle melting
- Tetrahedral plot diagram: A geometrical solution for quaternary systems
- Investigations on alunogen under Mars-relevant temperature conditions: An example for a single-crystal-to-single-crystal phase transition
- Crystallization of calcium oxalate hydrates by interaction of calcite marble with fungus Aspergillus niger
- Direct and indirect evidence for free oxygen (O2–) in MO-silicate glasses and melts (M = Mg, Ca, Pb)
- Effect of fluid composition on growth rate of monazite in quartzite at 1.0 GPa and 1000 °C
- Determination of the full elastic tensor of single crystals using shear wave velocities by Brillouin spectroscopy
- Temperature dependence of the velocity-density relation for liquid metals under high pressure: Implications for the Earth’s outer core
- Thermal, compositional, and compressional demagnetization of cementite
- The MnCO3-II high-pressure polymorph of rhodocrosite
- Lanthanide tetrads in normalized rare element patterns of zircon from the Koktokay No. 3 granitic pegmatite, Altay, NW China
- Hydrogrossular, Ca3Al2(SiO4)3–x(H4O4)x: An ab initio investigation of its structural and energetic properties
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- High-pressure spectroscopic study of siderite (FeCO3) with a focus on spin crossover
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- Apexite, NaMg(PO4)·9H2O, a new struvite-type phase with a heteropolyhedral cluster
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- The axial ratio of hcp Fe and Fe–Ni–Si alloys to the conditions of Earth’s inner core
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- The accretion and differentiation of Earth under oxidizing conditions
- Dislocation microstructures in simple-shear-deformed wadsleyite at transition-zone conditions: Weak-beam dark-field TEM characterization of dislocations on the (010) plane
- Chemical composition and crystal structure of merrillite from the Suizhou meteorite