Home Modification of gas speciation in quartz-hosted fluid inclusions by stray laser radiation during LA-ICPMS analysis
Article
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Modification of gas speciation in quartz-hosted fluid inclusions by stray laser radiation during LA-ICPMS analysis

  • Glenn Lambrecht , Larryn W. Diamond EMAIL logo and Thomas Pettke
Published/Copyright: April 1, 2015
Become an author with De Gruyter Brill

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.

Received: 2008-2-20
Accepted: 2008-2-28
Published Online: 2015-4-1
Published in Print: 2008-7-1

© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Rietveld structure refinement of MgGeO3 post-perovskite phase to 1 Mbar
  2. High-temperature ammonium white mica from the Betic Cordillera (Spain)
  3. Synthesis and crystal structure of the feldspathoid CsAlSiO4: An open-framework silicate and potential nuclear waste disposal phase
  4. The crystal chemistry of Li in gadolinite
  5. The effect of the hedenbergitic substitution on the compressibility of jadeite
  6. The structure of monohydrocalcite and the phase composition of the beachrock deposits of Lake Butler and Lake Fellmongery, South Australia
  7. First-principles calculation of the infrared spectrum of hematite
  8. In situ observations of muscovite dissolution under alkaline conditions at 25–50 °C by AFM with an air/fluid heater system
  9. Ramanite-(Cs) and ramanite-(Rb): New cesium and rubidium pentaborate tetrahydrate minerals identified with Raman spectroscopy
  10. Pressure-temperature studies of talc plus water using X-ray diffraction
  11. Hematite and magnetite precipitates in olivine from the Sulu peridotite: A result of dehydrogenation-oxidation reaction of mantle olivine?
  12. Arsenide in a metasomatized peridotite xenolith as a constraint on arsenic behavior in the mantle wedge
  13. Multiple oxygen sites in synthetic phyllosilicates with expandable layers: 17O solid-state NMR study
  14. On the existence of a Na-deficient monoclinic trinepheline with composition Na7.85Al7.85Si8.15O32
  15. Chlorite and biotite weathering, Fe2+-rich corrensite formation, and Fe behavior under low Po₂ conditions and their implication for Precambrian weathering
  16. Structural characterization of natural UO2 at pressures up to 82 GPa and temperatures up to 2200 K
  17. Dense hydrous magnesium silicates, phase D, and superhydrous B: New structural constraints from one- and two-dimensional 29Si and 1H NMR
  18. Mid-IR bands of synthetic calcic amphiboles of tremolite-pargasite series and of natural calcic amphiboles
  19. Probing the site occupancies of Co-, Ni-, and Mn-substituted biogenic magnetite using XAS and XMCD
  20. Origin of titanite in metarodingite from the Zagros Thrust Zone, Iraq
  21. Experimental calibration of aluminum partitioning between olivine and spinel as a geothermometer
  22. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction study of CaIrO3
  23. Orthorhombic polymorph of rengeite from Ohmi region, central Japan
  24. New insights into the crystal chemistry of epididymite and eudidymite from Malosa, Malawi: A single-crystal neutron diffraction study
  25. Mechanisms of rhyolitic glass hydration below the glass transition
  26. Heat capacity and entropy of melanophlogite: Molecule-containing porosils in nature
  27. Crystal structure of glaucodot, (Co,Fe)AsS, and its relationships to marcasite and arsenopyrite
  28. Modification of gas speciation in quartz-hosted fluid inclusions by stray laser radiation during LA-ICPMS analysis
  29. A PH₂O-dependent structural phase transition in the zeolite natrolite
Downloaded on 1.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.2138/am.2008.2960/html
Scroll to top button