Neoarchaean seawater sulphate concentrations from sulphur isotopes in massive sulphide ore

Nature Geoscience volume 6, pages61–64(2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

The concentration of sulphate in today’s oceans—approximately 28,000 μmol l−1—is maintained by a balance between removal by pyrite burial and evaporite deposition and supply by oxidative weathering and the erosion of sulphate minerals from evaporites1. Oceanic sulphate concentrations were much lower before the rise of atmospheric oxygen about 2.4 Gyr ago2. The limited spread of δ34S values in sedimentary sulphides from 3.85 to 2.5 Gyr ago suggests that microbial sulphate reduction, if it played an important role in the Archaean marine sulphur cycle, must have occurred at sulphate concentrations of 200 μmol l−1 or less3. Here we use sulphur isotope systematics of the 2.7 Gyr old volcanogenic massive sulphide ore deposits from Kidd Creek, Ontario, to provide constraints on seawater sulphate concentrations independent of biological considerations. By comparing these values with metal and sulphur budgets from modern hydrothermal settings, we estimate that seawater sulphate concentrations 2.7 Gyr ago were roughly 80 μmol l−1. At these levels, the residence time of sulphate was on the order of 200,000 years, sufficiently long to make sulphate a conservative compound in the open ocean, but still short enough to suggest that hydrothermal sulphur fluxes were accompanied by a globally significant sink associated with microbial sulphate reduction.

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Figure 1: Mass-independent sulphur isotope signatures of sulphides from Kidd Creek.
Figure 2: Empirical probability distribution of seawater sulphate concentrations in the Neoarchaean Kidd Creek basin.

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Acknowledgements

Data measured for this study are available in the Supplementary Information. The National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada made this study possible through fellowships to J.W.J. and a Discovery grant to B.A.W. Analytical costs at the Stable Isotope Laboratory at the University of Maryland were supported by the National Science Foundation.

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Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada

    J. W. Jamieson & M. D. Hannington

  2. Department of Geology and Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA

    J. W. Jamieson & J. Farquhar

  3. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and GEOTOP, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2A7, Canada

    B. A. Wing

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  1. J. W. Jamieson
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  2. B. A. Wing
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  4. M. D. Hannington
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Contributions

This study was conceived by J.W.J. and B.A.W. Samples from Kidd Creek, and interpretation of their depositional environment were provided by M.D.H. Sulphur isotope analyses were performed by J.W.J. Analysis and interpretation of the data were completed by J.W.J., B.A.W. and J.F. The paper was written by J.W.J. and B.A.W.

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Correspondence to J. W. Jamieson.

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Jamieson, J., Wing, B., Farquhar, J. et al. Neoarchaean seawater sulphate concentrations from sulphur isotopes in massive sulphide ore. Nature Geosci 6, 61–64 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1647

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