Identification

Title

Sulphides - Economically important geochemical messengers from the mantle (NERC Grant NE/L010828/1)

Abstract

The project is aimed at understanding how a number of economically and geologically important chemical elements partition themselves between the silicates of the outer parts of the Earth and sulphides, minerals and liquids rich in sulphur. Although sulphur is not very abundant in the Earth, it has a powerful impact on the behaviour of a wide range of elements in Earth's crust and underlying mantle. For example, the majority of ore bodies rich in nickel, copper, gold and platinum are sulphides. Many of them are formed when sulphides separate from molten silicates in volcanic areas. A principal aim of my project is to experimentally reproduce the conditions under which sulphides separate and to determine how they extract the economically important elements from the host volcanic rocks. A second aim is to use my experimental results to determine whether or not a large mass of sulphide was extracted from the molten earth early in its history (4500 million years ago) and dissolved into the metallic core. In order to study how elements are distributed into sulphide I perform experiments at high pressures and temperatures, typically 15000 atmospheres pressure and 1400 degrees C in a large hydraulic press. After treatment at high pressure and temperature, the samples (typically about 1x1x1 millimeters) are rapidly cooled to room temperature and pressure and examined using a range of microanalytical techniques. The latter enables me to resolve chemical composition on the scale of 10 microns (or 10 millionth's of a meter).

Resource type

nonGeographicDataset

Resource locator

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/services/ngdc/accessions/index.html#item40949

function: download

Unique resource identifier

code

http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13606759

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Additional information source

NE/L010828/1

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2008-06-01

Keyword set

keyword value

Sulphides

Chemistry

Volcanic rocks

Geochemistry

originating controlled vocabulary

title

reference date

date type

revision

effective date

2011

Keyword set

keyword value

NERC_DDC

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2015-05

Frequency of update

notApplicable

Quality and validity

Lineage

For lineage details see published paper; http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X15003015

Conformity

Conformity report

specification

title

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2011

degree

false

explanation

See the referenced specification

Conformity report

specification

title

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-12-08

degree

false

explanation

See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

Constraint set

Limitations on public access

The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

Earth Sciences

organisation name

University of Oxford

full postal address

South Parks Road

Oxford

OX1 3AN

United Kingdom

email address

not available

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Responsible party

contact position

Earth Sciences

organisation name

University of Oxford

full postal address

South Parks Road

Oxford

OX1 3AN

United Kingdom

email address

not available

responsible party role

principalInvestigator

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

organisation name

British Geological Survey

full postal address

Environmental Science Centre,Keyworth

NOTTINGHAM

NG12 5GG

United Kingdom

telephone number

+44 115 936 3100

email address

enquiries@bgs.ac.uk

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2022-12-07

Metadata language