Element contents
Vanadium Isotopes
A Proxy for Ocean Oxygen Variations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2020
Summary
Vanadium isotope ratios (51V/50V) have potential to provide information about changes in past ocean oxygen contents. In particular, V isotopes may find utility in tracing variations at non-zero oxygen concentrations because the redox couple that controls V elemental and isotopic abundances in seawater (vanadate-vanadyl) appears to operate around 10M O2. This characteristic sets V isotopes apart from many other metal isotope redox proxies that require more reducing conditions to register significant changes in their isotope budgets. The oxygen abundance sensitivity range of V isotopes suggests that this paleoproxy could be particularly useful in tracing marine oxygenation changes throughout the Phanerozoic and potentially beyond.
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- Online ISBN: 9781108863438Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication: 28 January 2021
References
Key Papers
First high-precision V isotope studies that documented chemical separation techniques and mass spectrometric protocols:
Papers that documented the composition of seawater and modern marine fluxes:
Theoretical study of V isotope fractionation:
Nielsen, S. G., Prytulak, J. and Halliday, A. N. (2011) Determination of precise and accurate 51 V ⁄ 50 V isotope ratios by MC-ICP-MS, part 1: Chemical separation of vanadium and mass spectrometric protocols. Geostand. Geoanal. Res., 35, 293–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prytulak, J., Nielsen, S. G. and Halliday, A. N. (2011) Determination of precise and accurate 51 V ⁄ 50 V isotope ratios by multi-collector ICP-MS, part 2: Isotopic composition of six reference materials plus the Allende chondrite and verification tests. Geostand. Geoanal. Res., 35, 307–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, F., Qi, Y. H., Yu, H. M., et al. (2016) Vanadium isotope measurement by MC-ICP-MS. Chem. Geol., 421, 17–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, S. G., Owens, J. D. and Horner, T. J. (2016) Analysis of high-precision vanadium isotope ratios by medium resolution MC-ICP-MS. J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 31, 531–6.Google Scholar
Wu, F., Owens, J. D., Huang, T., et al. (2019) Vanadium isotope composition of seawater. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 244, 403–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, F., Owens, J. D., Scholz, F., et al. (2020) Sedimentary vanadium isotope signatures in marine low oxygen bottom water conditions. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, F., Owens, J. D., Tang, L., Dong, Y. and Huang, F. (2019) Vanadium isotopic fractionation during the formation of marine ferromanganese crusts and nodules. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 265, 371–85.Google Scholar
Schuth, S., Brüske, A., Hohl, S. V., et al. (2019) Vanadium and its isotope composition of river water and seawater: Analytical improvement and implications for vanadium isotope fractionation. Chem.Geol., 528, 119261.Google Scholar
Wu, F., Qin, T., Li, X. F., et al. (2015) First-principles investigation of vanadium isotope fractionation in solution and during adsorption. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 426, 216–24.Google Scholar
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