GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, USA - 2016

Paper No. 128-14
Presentation Time: 5:00 PM

FINE-SCALE SHIPBOARD RESOLUTION AMONG MAFIC IGNEOUS ROCK SEQUENCES RECOVERED DURING OCEAN DRILLING: QUANTITATIVE PXRF DETERMINATION OF KEY ELEMENTS ON ROCK SURFACES AND POWDERS DURING IODP EXPEDITION 352


RYAN, Jeffrey1, LI, Yibing1, LI, Hongyan2, HEATON, D.E.3, REAGAN, Mark K.4, SHERVAIS, John W.5, PEARCE, Julian A.6, PETRONOTIS, Katerina7, CHAPMAN, Timothy8, GODARD, Marguerite9, KIRCHENBAUR, Maria10, NELSON, Wendy R.11, PRYTULAK, Julie12, SHIMIZU, Kenji13 and WHATTAM, Scott14, (1)University of South Florida School of Geosciences, University of South Florida, 4202 East Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33620, (2)Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy Science, 511 Kehua Street, Wushan, Guangzhou, 510640, China, (3)College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, (4)Geoscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, (5)Geology Dept, Utah State Univ, Logan, UT 84322-4505, (6)Cardiff U, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, United Kingdom, (7)International Ocean Discovery Program, Texas A&M University, 1000 Discovery Drive, College Station, TX 77845-954, (8)The University of Sydney, Camperdown, 2006 NSW, Australia, (9)Géosciences Montpellier, Université de Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon, Montpellier, 34095, France, (10)Institut für Geologie und Mineralogie, Universitat Koln, Zülpicher Str. 49a, Köln, 50674, Germany, (11)Physics, Astronomy and Geosciences, Towson University, 8000 York Road, Towson, MD 21252, (12)Department of Earth Science & Engineering, Imperial College London, London, SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom, (13)JAMSTEC, Yokosuka, 237-0061, Japan, (14)1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea University, Seoul, 136-701, Korea, Republic of (South), ryan@mail.usf.edu

While handheld energy dispersive X-ray spectrometers (pXRF) are designed and generally used for qualitative survey applications on land, we employed a handheld pXRF instrument to conduct rapid, quantitative elemental measurements on recovered mafic rock samples onboard the JOIDES Resolution over the eight weeks of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 352 to the Izu-Bonin forearc. Working curves were developed via pXRF measurements of a suite of geologic standard reference materials and characterized lavas compositionally similar to our drilling targets (basalts and boninites), which permitted accurate quantitative measurements for a range of major and trace elements on both sample powders and rock surfaces, with good agreement between pXRF and shipboard ICP-OES data (and subsequently with post-cruise XRF determinations) for most elements. pXRF performance on the ship was found to be optimal for elements between Z=19 and Z=40, yielding reproducible data for K, Ca, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Rb, Sr, and Zr on both powdered samples and rock surfaces. Some 2000 pXRF determinations were made on igneous materials recovered during >1600 m of basement drilling on the Expedition.

While XRF and pXRF instrumentation have been sporadically employed on previous research cruises, IODP Expedition 352 is the first time the instrument has been used to establish a detailed, high-density chemostratigraphy of rock core surface measurements, allowing the recognition and resolution of chemically distinct eruptive units in near real-time, as well as larger-scale trends in compositional change potentially related to changes in mantle sources during subduction initiation magmatism. The rapid identification of geochemical trends vastly improved our selection of samples for shipboard and shore-based analysis, facilitated drilling decisions on the ship, and has permitted a more comprehensive interpretation of Expedition results.