Abstract
Laser-ablation inductively coupled-plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICPMS) is an established method of analyzing the elemental composition of individual fluid inclusions in minerals. While the method affords good spatial control of ablation pits, we have found that stray light from the UV (193 nm) laser may permanently modify the gas species in adjacent fluid inclusions. We have used Raman spectroscopy to analyze natural fluid inclusions in quartz before and after ablating test pits. New molecular species (CO, H2, and O2) appeared in the vapor phases of inclusions near the pits, resulting in complex, disequilibrium gas mixtures (e.g., CO2-CH4-H2O-CO-H2-O2) and formation of iron oxyhydroxides in brine inclusions. Ablation for 40 s with a laser fluence of ~24 J/cm2 on the sample produced the new gas species in inclusions at various distances up to 210 μm from the pits, depending on pit diameter. We attribute the changes in gas speciation to molecular photodissociation induced by stray UV-laser light. We have no evidence that this artifact changes the bulk elemental composition or density of the affected inclusions. The problem for fluid inclusion analysis is that phase-transition temperatures (e.g., clathrate hydrate dissociation, partial homogenization of the carbonic phases, and total homogenization) are highly sensitive to the mixture of gas species present. This means that parameters such as gas compositions, bulk salinity, and minimum entrapment temperatures are likely to be misinterpreted if inclusions are analyzed by microthermometry or Raman spectroscopy in samples that have already undergone laser ablation.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Rietveld structure refinement of MgGeO3 post-perovskite phase to 1 Mbar
- High-temperature ammonium white mica from the Betic Cordillera (Spain)
- Synthesis and crystal structure of the feldspathoid CsAlSiO4: An open-framework silicate and potential nuclear waste disposal phase
- The crystal chemistry of Li in gadolinite
- The effect of the hedenbergitic substitution on the compressibility of jadeite
- The structure of monohydrocalcite and the phase composition of the beachrock deposits of Lake Butler and Lake Fellmongery, South Australia
- First-principles calculation of the infrared spectrum of hematite
- In situ observations of muscovite dissolution under alkaline conditions at 25–50 °C by AFM with an air/fluid heater system
- Ramanite-(Cs) and ramanite-(Rb): New cesium and rubidium pentaborate tetrahydrate minerals identified with Raman spectroscopy
- Pressure-temperature studies of talc plus water using X-ray diffraction
- Hematite and magnetite precipitates in olivine from the Sulu peridotite: A result of dehydrogenation-oxidation reaction of mantle olivine?
- Arsenide in a metasomatized peridotite xenolith as a constraint on arsenic behavior in the mantle wedge
- Multiple oxygen sites in synthetic phyllosilicates with expandable layers: 17O solid-state NMR study
- On the existence of a Na-deficient monoclinic trinepheline with composition Na7.85Al7.85Si8.15O32
- Chlorite and biotite weathering, Fe2+-rich corrensite formation, and Fe behavior under low Po₂ conditions and their implication for Precambrian weathering
- Structural characterization of natural UO2 at pressures up to 82 GPa and temperatures up to 2200 K
- Dense hydrous magnesium silicates, phase D, and superhydrous B: New structural constraints from one- and two-dimensional 29Si and 1H NMR
- Mid-IR bands of synthetic calcic amphiboles of tremolite-pargasite series and of natural calcic amphiboles
- Probing the site occupancies of Co-, Ni-, and Mn-substituted biogenic magnetite using XAS and XMCD
- Origin of titanite in metarodingite from the Zagros Thrust Zone, Iraq
- Experimental calibration of aluminum partitioning between olivine and spinel as a geothermometer
- Single-crystal X-ray diffraction study of CaIrO3
- Orthorhombic polymorph of rengeite from Ohmi region, central Japan
- New insights into the crystal chemistry of epididymite and eudidymite from Malosa, Malawi: A single-crystal neutron diffraction study
- Mechanisms of rhyolitic glass hydration below the glass transition
- Heat capacity and entropy of melanophlogite: Molecule-containing porosils in nature
- Crystal structure of glaucodot, (Co,Fe)AsS, and its relationships to marcasite and arsenopyrite
- Modification of gas speciation in quartz-hosted fluid inclusions by stray laser radiation during LA-ICPMS analysis
- A PH₂O-dependent structural phase transition in the zeolite natrolite
Articles in the same Issue
- Rietveld structure refinement of MgGeO3 post-perovskite phase to 1 Mbar
- High-temperature ammonium white mica from the Betic Cordillera (Spain)
- Synthesis and crystal structure of the feldspathoid CsAlSiO4: An open-framework silicate and potential nuclear waste disposal phase
- The crystal chemistry of Li in gadolinite
- The effect of the hedenbergitic substitution on the compressibility of jadeite
- The structure of monohydrocalcite and the phase composition of the beachrock deposits of Lake Butler and Lake Fellmongery, South Australia
- First-principles calculation of the infrared spectrum of hematite
- In situ observations of muscovite dissolution under alkaline conditions at 25–50 °C by AFM with an air/fluid heater system
- Ramanite-(Cs) and ramanite-(Rb): New cesium and rubidium pentaborate tetrahydrate minerals identified with Raman spectroscopy
- Pressure-temperature studies of talc plus water using X-ray diffraction
- Hematite and magnetite precipitates in olivine from the Sulu peridotite: A result of dehydrogenation-oxidation reaction of mantle olivine?
- Arsenide in a metasomatized peridotite xenolith as a constraint on arsenic behavior in the mantle wedge
- Multiple oxygen sites in synthetic phyllosilicates with expandable layers: 17O solid-state NMR study
- On the existence of a Na-deficient monoclinic trinepheline with composition Na7.85Al7.85Si8.15O32
- Chlorite and biotite weathering, Fe2+-rich corrensite formation, and Fe behavior under low Po₂ conditions and their implication for Precambrian weathering
- Structural characterization of natural UO2 at pressures up to 82 GPa and temperatures up to 2200 K
- Dense hydrous magnesium silicates, phase D, and superhydrous B: New structural constraints from one- and two-dimensional 29Si and 1H NMR
- Mid-IR bands of synthetic calcic amphiboles of tremolite-pargasite series and of natural calcic amphiboles
- Probing the site occupancies of Co-, Ni-, and Mn-substituted biogenic magnetite using XAS and XMCD
- Origin of titanite in metarodingite from the Zagros Thrust Zone, Iraq
- Experimental calibration of aluminum partitioning between olivine and spinel as a geothermometer
- Single-crystal X-ray diffraction study of CaIrO3
- Orthorhombic polymorph of rengeite from Ohmi region, central Japan
- New insights into the crystal chemistry of epididymite and eudidymite from Malosa, Malawi: A single-crystal neutron diffraction study
- Mechanisms of rhyolitic glass hydration below the glass transition
- Heat capacity and entropy of melanophlogite: Molecule-containing porosils in nature
- Crystal structure of glaucodot, (Co,Fe)AsS, and its relationships to marcasite and arsenopyrite
- Modification of gas speciation in quartz-hosted fluid inclusions by stray laser radiation during LA-ICPMS analysis
- A PH₂O-dependent structural phase transition in the zeolite natrolite