Obsidian hydration dating applied to dating of basaltic volcanic activity
Basalt flows and bombs that contain remelted rhyolite glass can be dated by obsidian hydration dating.
Science↗
Geology topics
I. Friedman
Publications and source records attributed to I. Friedman.
Some investigations of the deposition of travertine from Hot Springs-I. The isotopic chemistry of a travertine-depositing spring
The isotopic compositions of the travertine and of the hot spring solutions were studied at Main Springs and New Highland Terrace in the Mammoth Hot Springs area of Yellowstone Park. The springs issue at 74°C and a pH of 6.65 and the carbon isotopic composition of the travertine depositing at the orifice is +2%.δC 13 (PDB). As the water travels out from the orifice, it cools and loses CO 2 . The travertine depositing at lower temperature is enriched in C 13 , reaching values of +4.8%. and the solution has a pH of 8.2 at 27°C. The δC 13 of the carbon species in solution is about −2.3%. at 74° and about +4.3 at 27°C. Therefore, the difference in δC 13 between the solid and solution is approximately 4%. at 74° and decreases to zero at about 20°C. These differences are shown to be due to kinetic (non-equilibrium) factors. The δO 18 contents of the travertine and water show that in most samples the carbonate oxygen is in equilibrium with the water O 18 at the temperatures of deposition. This is especially true for travertine depositing slowly and at temperatures above about 50°C. Calculations based on pH and alkalinity titrations of the hot spring waters in situ show that at the spring orifice the water is very high in free CO 2 , which is quickly lost in transit. The springs are supersaturated with respect to both aragonite and calcite during most of their travel in the open air. The carbon isotopic composition of the travertine is similar to that in the marine carbonates that are adjacent to the springs and that are the probable source of the calcium carbonate. The travertine from inactive prehistoric springs near Mammoth has similar δC 13 and O 18 to that from the active springs. Soda Butte, an inactive center 25 miles east of Mammoth, contains heavier carbon and oxygen than the springs near Mammoth.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta↗
A new technique for pumping hydrogen gas
A system for pumping hydrogen gas without isotopic fractionation has been developed. The pump contains uranium metal, which when heated to about 80°C reacts with hydrogen to form UH 3 . The UH 3 is heated to above 500°C to decompose the hydride and regenerate the hydrogen.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta↗
Water, hydrogen, deuterium, carbon, carbon-13, and oxygen-18 content of selected lunar material
The water content of the breccia is 150 to 455 ppm, with a δD from—580 to —870 per mil. Hydrogen gas content is 40 to 53 ppm with a δD of —830 to —970 per mil. The CO 2 is 290 to 418 ppm with δ 13 C = + 2.3 to + 5.1 per mil and δ 18 O = 14.2 to 19.1 per mil. Non-CO 2 carbon is 22 to 100 ppm, δ 13 C = —6.4 to —23.2 per mil. Lunar dust is 810 ppm H 2 O (D = 80 ppm) and 188 ppm total carbon(δ 13 C = —17.6 per mil). The 18 O analyses of whole rocks range from 5.8 to 6.2 per mil. The temperature of crystallization of type B rocks is 1100° to 1300°C, based on the oxygen isotope fractionation between coexisting plagioclase and ilmenite.
Science↗
Deuterium content of snow cores from Sierra Nevada area
The relative deuterium content was measured on 37 snow cores collected in April 1969 in the Sierra Nevada. The deuterium content varies inversely with altitude of collection (approximately 40 per mil per 1000 meters) but is unrelated to latitude. The altitude relationship is particularly well defined west of the crest of the range but is not well defined east of the crest. However, samples from east of the crest tend to be depleted by about 10 to 15 per mil relative to samples collected at the same elevation west of the crest. We propose that the deuterium content of snow cores, collected so as to include the total winter's precipitation, can be used as a climatic indicator to compare the climate of one winter with that of another.
California, Nevada↗
Deuterium: Natural variations used as a biological tracer
The suggestion is made that isotope tracing be carried out by monitoring the natural variations in deuterium concentrations. As an example, the natural variations in deuterium concentrations between food and water collected in Illinois and food and water collected in Colorado were used to determine the residence time of water in the blood and urine of rats. We observed not only a 51/2-day turnover time of water in the blood and urine, but also evidence for the influx of water vapor from the atmosphere through the lungs into the blood.
Science↗
Geochemistry and origin of formation waters in the western Canada sedimentary basin-I. Stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen
Stable isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen, together with chemical analyses, were determined for 20 surface waters, 8 shallow potable formation waters, and 79 formation waters from oil fields and gas fields. The observed isotope ratios can be explained by mixing of surface water and diagenetically modified sea water, accompanied by a process which enriches the heavy oxygen isotope. Mass balances for deuterium and total dissolved solids in the western Canada sedimentary basin demonstrate that the present distribution of deuterium in formation waters of the basin can be derived through mixing of the diagenetically modified sea water with not more than 2.9 times as much fresh water at the same latitude, and that the movement of fresh water through the basin has redistributed the dissolved solids of the modified sea water into the observed salinity variations. Statistical analysis of the isotope data indicates that although exchange of deuterium between water and hydrogen sulphide takes place within the basin, the effect is minimized because of an insignificant mass of hydrogen sulphide compared to the mass of formation water. Conversely, exchange of oxygen isotopes between water and carbonate minerals causes a major oxygen-18 enrichment of formation waters, depending on the relative masses of water and carbonate. Qualitative evidence confirms the isotopic fractionation of deuterium on passage of water through micropores in shales.
Alberta↗
Hydration rind dates rhyolite flows
Hydration of obsidian has been used to date rhyolite flows, containing obsidian or porphyritic glass, at Glass Mountain (Medicine Lake Highlands) and Mono Lake, California. The method is simple and rapid and can be used to date flows that erupted between 200 and approximately 200,000 years ago.
California↗
Hydration of natural glass and formation of perlite
The hydration rate of rhyolitic glass has been determined at temperatures ranging from 5° C to 100° C. The relationship between the depth of hydration, x, and time, t is x 2 = kt; k varies from 0.4 μ 2 /10 3 years at 5° C to 10 4 μ 2 /10 3 years at 100° C; k is independent of the water pressure from a few hundredths of a centimeter to 1 atm. water pressure. The activation energy of hydration is about 20 kcal/mole. The determined hydration rates are consistent with the observation that perlite commonly forms by the hydration of shattered rhyolitic glass, either during the late cooling of a deposit or after the deposit has cooled to a surficial temperature.
Geological Society of America Bulletin↗
Low deuterium content of Lake Vanda, Antarctica
Lake Vanda in Victoria Land, Antarctica, is permanently ice-covered and permanently stratified, with warm, salty water near the bottom. Deuterium analyses of lake water from several levels indicate that the lake has a low deuterium content, and that it is stratified with respect to this isotope. This low deuterium content supports the evidence from the lake's ionic content that the saline layer is not of marine origin, and it indicates that evaporation from the ice surface has taken place. The stratification of the lake with respect to deuterium suggests that the upper and lower layers of water were formed at different times from different sources of glacial melt water.
Science↗
Composition of fluid inclusions, cave-in-rock fluorite district, Illinois, and upper Mississippi valley zinc-lead district
No abstract available.
Economic Geology↗
Deuterium in Iceland waters
From the deuterium analysis of 159 samples of water collected in Iceland from hot-water boreholes, cold and hot springs, rivers and rain, the geographical distribution of deuterium in surface waters is plotted. On the basis of the deuterium analysis, the water from boreholes near Reykjavik does not originate from local precipitation. The variation of deuterium content of these water wells with time suggests that these data can be used to determine the time of travel of recharge water to the various boreholes, as well as the surface recharge area.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta↗
Isotopic composition of atmospheric hydrogen and methane
IN a recent communication, Bishop and Taylor 1 express the opinion that the tritium concentration of free hydrogen in the atmosphere has been rising over the past ten years, with a doubling time of approximately 18 months. The authors suspect that artificial tritium was released into the atmosphere several years before the Castle test series in 1954, which is commonly assumed to have led to the first pronounced rise in the tritium concentration of terrestrial surface water. Bishop and Taylor's communication includes a diagram of the logarithms of all the experimentally determined tritium values in free atmospheric hydrogen plotted against time. The plot shows that the values follow a straight line that includes the first value obtained by Faltings and Harteck 2 on atmospheric hydrogen collected in 1948.
Nature↗
The deuterium content of water in some volcanic glasses
The deuterium-hydrogen composition (relative to Lake Michigan water = 0.0) of water extractsd from coexisting perlite and obsidian from eleven different localities was determined. The water content of the obsidians is generally from 0.09 to 0.29 per cent by weight, though two samples from near Olancha, California, contain about 0.92 per cent. The relative deuterium concentration is from −4.6 to −12.3 per cent. The coexisting perlite contains from 2.0 to 3.8 per cent of water with a relative deuterium concentration of −3.1 to −16.6 per cent. The deuterium concentration in the perlites is not related to that in the enclosed obsidian. The deuterium concentration in the perlite water is related to the deuterium concentration of the modern meteoric water and the perlite water contains approximately 4 per cent less deuterium than does the groundwater of the area in which the perlites occur. The above relations hold true for perlites from northern New Mexico, east slope of the Sierra Nevada. California Coast Range, Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, and New Zealand. As the water in the obsidian is unrelated to meteoric water, but the enclosing perlite water is related, we believe that this is evidence for the secondary hydration of obsidian to form high water content perlitic glass.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta↗
The water, deuterium, gas and uranium content of tektites
The water content, deuterium concentration of the water, total gas and uranium contents were determined on tektite samples and other glass samples from Texas, Australia, Philippine Islands, Java, French Indo-China, Czechoslovakia, Libyan Desert, Billiton Island, Thailand, French West Africa, Peru, and New Mexico. The water content ranges from 0.24 per cent for the Peru tektite, to 0.0002 per cent for a moldavite. The majority of the tektites have less than 0.05 per cent water, and average 0.005 per cent H 2 O by weight. No other gases were detected, the lower detection limit being about 1 p.p.m. by weight. The deuterium content of the water in tektites is in the same range as that in terrestrial waters, and varies from 0.010 mole per cent to 0.0166 mole per cent deuterium. The uranium content is about from 1 to 3 p.p.m. The possible origin of tektites is discussed. The experimental data presented favour their being originally terrestrial, but produced by some catastrophic event. An extra-terrestrial source is not ruled out.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta↗