Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T05:29:59.517Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pathways of volcanic glass alteration in laboratory experiments through inorganic and microbially-mediated processes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2018

J. Cuadros ,
B. Afsin ,
P. Jadubansa ,
M. Ardakani ,
C. Ascaso  and
J. Wierzchos
J. Cuadros*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7, 5BD, UK
B. Afsin
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7, 5BD, UK
P. Jadubansa
Affiliation:
Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
M. Ardakani
Affiliation:
Department of Materials, Faculty of Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
C. Ascaso
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Biology, National Museum of Natural Sciences, CSIC, Serrano 115, 28006 Madrid, Spain
J. Wierzchos
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Biology, National Museum of Natural Sciences, CSIC, Serrano 115, 28006 Madrid, Spain
*
*E-mail: j.cuadros@nhm.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Rhyolitic obsidian was reacted with natural waters to study the effect of water chemistry and biological activity on the composition and formation mechanisms of clay. Two sets of experiments (18 months, 6 years) used fresh, hypersaline water (Mg-Na-SO4-Cl- and NaCl-rich) and seawater. The 6-year experiments produced the transformation of obsidian into quartz, apparently by in situ re-crystallization (Cuadros et al., 2012). The most abundant neoformed clay was dioctahedral (typically montmorillonite), indicating chemical control by the glass (where Al > Mg). Altered glass morphology and chemistry in the 18-months experiments indicated in situ transformation to clay. Magnesium-rich (saponite) clay formed under water-chemistry control in the bulk and within biofilms with elevated Mg concentration (Cuadros et al., 2013). The contact between microbial structures and glass was very intimate. Glass transformation into quartz may be due to some characteristic of the obsidian and/or alteration conditions. Such combination needs not to be uncommon in nature and opens new possibilities of quartz origin.

Keywords

biologically-mediated formation of claycryo-SEMmineral-microbe interactionquartz formationTEM-AEMvolcanic glass alteration to clay
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , June 2013 , pp. 423 - 445
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Present address: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Arts, Ondokuz Mayis University, Samsun, 55139 Turkey

References

Abdelouas, A., Crovisier, J., Lutze, W., Fritz, B., Mosser, A. & Müller, R. (1994) Formation of hydrotalcitelike coumpounds during R7T7 nuclear waste glass and basaltic glass alteration. Clays and Clay Minerals, 42, 526–533.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alt, J. & Mata, P. (2000) On the role of microbes in the alteration of submarine basaltic glass; a TEM study. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 181, 301–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aouad, G., Geoffroy, V.A., Crovisier, J.L., Meyer, J.M., Damidot, D. & Stille, P. (2006) The role of biofilms on the alteration kinetics of waste matrices. Geophysical Research Abstracts, 8, 08580.Google Scholar
Barker, W. & Banfield, J. (1996) Biologically versus inorganically mediated weathering reactions: relationships between minerals and extracellular microbial polymers in lithobiontic communities. Chemical Geology, 132, 55–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bormann, B., Wang, D., Bormann, F., Benoit, G., April, R. & Snyder, M. (1998) Rapid, plant-induced weathering in an aggrading experimental ecosystem. Biogeochemistry, 43, 129–155.Google Scholar
Brehm, U., Gorbushina, A. & Mottershead, D. (2005) The role of microorganisms and biofilms in the breakdown and dissolution of quartz and glass. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 219, 117–129.Google Scholar
Cerling, T., Brown, F. & Bowman, J. (1985) Lowtemperature alteration of volcanic glass: hydration, Na, K, 18O and Ar mobility. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience), 52, 281–293.Google Scholar
Cuadros, J., Afsin, B., Michalski, J.R. & Ardakani, M. (2012) Fast, microscale-controlled weathering of rhyolitic obsidian to quartz and alunite. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 353-354, 156–162. doi 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.08.009Google Scholar
Cuadros, J., Afsin, B., Jadubansa, P., Ardakani, M., Ascaso, C. & Wierzchos, J. (2013) Microbial and inorganic control on the composition of clay from volcanic glass alteration experiments. American Mineralogist, 98, 319–334.Google Scholar
de la Fuente, S., Cuadros, J., Fiore, S. & Linares, J. (2000) Electron microscopy study of volcanic tuff alteration to illite-smectite under hydrothermal conditions. Clays and Clay Minerals, 48, 339–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de la Fuente, S., Cuadros, J. & Linares, J. (2002) Early stages of volcanic tuff alteration in hydrothermal experiments: Formation of mixed-layer illite-smectite. Clays and Clay Minerals, 50, 578–590.Google Scholar
Deocampo, D.M., Cuadros, J., Wing-Dudek, T., Olives, J. & Amouric, M. (2009) Saline lake diagenesis as revealed by coupled mineralogy and geochemistry of multiple ultrafine clay phases: Pliocene Olduvai gorge, Tanzania. American Journal of Science, 309, 834–868. DOI 10.2475/09.2009.03Google Scholar
Fiore, S., Huertas, F.J., Huertas, F. & Linares, J. (2001) Smectite formation in rhyolitic obsidian as inferred by microscopic (SEM-TEM-AEM) investigation. Clay Minerals, 36, 489–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghiara, M., Franco, E., Petti, C., Stanzione, D. & Valentino, G. (1993) Hydrothermal interaction between basaltic glass, deionized water and seawater. Chemical Geology, 104, 125–138.Google Scholar
Giorgetti, G., Monecke, T., Kleeberg, R. & Hannington, M. (2009) Low-temperature hydrothermal alteration of Trachybasalt at Conical Seamount, Papua New Guinea: formation of smectite and metastable precursor phases. Clays and Clay Minerals, 57, 725–741.Google Scholar
Güven, N. (1988) Smectites. Pp. 497–559 in: Hydrous Phyllosilicates (Bailey, S.W., editor) Reviews in Mineralogy, 19, Mineralogical Society of America, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Hama, K., Bateman, K., Coombs, P., Hards, V., Milodowski, A., West, J., Wetton, P., Yoshida, H. & Aoki, K. (2001) Influence of bacteria on rock-water interaction and clay mineral formation in subsurface granitic environments. Clay Minerals, 36, 599–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kawano, M. & Tomita, K. (2002) Microbiotic formation of silicate minerals in the weathering environment of a pyroclastic deposit. Clays and Clay Minerals, 50, 99–110.Google Scholar
Konhauser, K. & Urrutia, M. (1999) Bacterial clay authigenesis; a common biogeochemical process. Chemical Geology, 161, 399–413.Google Scholar
Lindgreen, H., Jakobsen, F. & Springer, N. (2010) Nanosize quartz accumulation in reservoir chalk, Ekofisk Formation, South Arne Field, North Sea. Clay Minerals, 45, 171–182.Google Scholar
Lindgreen, H., Drits, V., Salyn, A., Jakobsen, F. & Springer, N. (2011) Formation of flint horizons in North Sea chalk through marine sedimentation of nano-quartz. Clay Minerals, 46, 525–537.Google Scholar
Magonthier, M.-C., Petit, J-C. & Dran, J.-C. (1992) Rhyolitic glasses as natural analogues of nuclear waste glasses: behaviour of an Icelandic glass upon natural aqueous corrosion. Applied Geochemistry (Supplementary Issue), 1, 83–93.Google Scholar
Mazer, J., Bates, J., Bradley, J., Bradley, C. & Stevenson, C. (1992) Alteration of tektite to form weathering products. Nature, 57, 573–576.Google Scholar
Needham, S., Worden, R. & Cuadros, J. (2006) Sediment ingestion by worms and the production of bio-clays: a study of macrobiologically enhanced weathering and early diagenetic processes. Sedimentology, 53, 567–579.Google Scholar
Nooren, C., van Breemen, N., Stoorvogel, J. & Jongmans, A. (1995) The role of earthworms in the formation of sandy surface soils in a tropical forest in Ivory Coast. Geoderma, 65, 135–148.Google Scholar
Proust, D., Caillaud, J. & Fontaine, C. (2006) Clay minerals in early amphibole weathering: tri- to dioctahedral sequence as a function of crystallization sites in the amphibole. Clays and Clay Minerals, 54, 351–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rimstidt, J.D. & Barnes, H.L. (1980) The kinetics of silica-water reactions. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 44, 1683–1699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothschild, L.J. & Mancinelli, R.L. (2001) Life in extreme environments. Nature, 409, 1092–1101.Google Scholar
Sanchez-Navas, A., Martin-Algarra, A. & Nieto, F. (1998) Bacterially-mediated authigenesis of clays in phosphate stromatolites. Sedimentology, 45, 519–533.Google Scholar
Staudigel, H., Chastain, R., Yayanos, A. & Bourcier, W. (1995) Biologically mediated dissolution of glass. Chemical Geology, 126, 147–154.Google Scholar
Staudigel, H., Furnes, H., McLoughlin, N., Banerjee, N.R., Connell, L.B. & Templeton, A. (2008) 3.5 billion years of glass bioalteration: Volcanic rocks as a basis for microbial life? Earth Science Reviews, 89, 156.Google Scholar
Swinbanks, D. (1981) Sediment reworking and the biogenic formation of clay laminae by Abarenicola pacifica. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 51, 1137–1145.Google Scholar
Tazaki, K. (2005) Microbial formation of a halloysitelike mineral. Clays and Clay Minerals, 53, 224–233.Google Scholar
Thomassin, J.-H., Boutonnat, F., Touray, J.-C. & Baillif, P. (1989) Geochemical role of the water/rock ratio during the experimental alteration of a synthetic basaltic glass at 50°C. An XPS and STEM investigation. European Journal of Mineralogy, 1, 261–274.Google Scholar
Thompson, M. & Walsh, J.N. (2003) Handbook of Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometry. Viridian, Woking, UK.Google Scholar
Thorseth, I.H., Furnes, H. & Tumyr, O. (1995a) Textural and chemical effects of bacterial activity on basaltic glass: an experimental approach. Chemical Geology, 119, 139–160.Google Scholar
Thorseth, I.H., Torsvik, T., Furnes, H. & Muehlenbachs, K. (1995b) Microbes play an important role in the alteration of oceanic crust. Chemical Geology, 126, 137–146.Google Scholar
horseth, I., Pedersen, R. & Christie, D. (2003) Microbial alteration of 0–30-Ma seafloor and sub-seafloor basaltic glasses from the Australian Antarctic Discordance. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 215, 237–247.Google Scholar
Ueshima, M. & Tazaki, K. (2001) Possible role of microbial polysaccharides in nontronite formation. Clays and Clay Minerals, 49, 292–299.Google Scholar
Ullman, W.J., Kirchman, D.L., Welch, S.A. & Vandevivere, P. (1996) Laboratory evidence for microbially mediated silicate mineral dissolution in nature. Chemical Geology, 132, 11–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verney-Carron, A., Gin, S. & Libourel, G.A. (2008) Fractured roman glass block altered for 1800 years in seawater: Analogy with nuclear waste glass in a deep geological repository. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 72, 5372–5385.Google Scholar
Wakefield, R. & Jones, M. (1998) An introduction to stone colonizing micro-organisms and biodeterioration of building stones. Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology, 31, 301–313.Google Scholar
Whitman, W., Coleman, D.C. & Wiebe, W. (1998) Prokaryotes: The unseen majority. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 95, 6578–6583.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wolff-Boenisch, D., Gislason, S.R., Oelkers, E.H. & Putnis, C.V. (2004) The dissolution rates of natural glasses as a function of their composition at pH 4 and 10.6, and temperatures from 25 to 74°C. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 68, 4843–4858. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2004.05.027.CrossRefGoogle Scholar