Experimental Noble Metal Geochemistry

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Drake EAR-0074036 This project proposes an experimental program to continue an investigation of the solubility and mineral/melt partitioning behavior of highly siderophile elements. The proposed work bears directly on the use of Re-Os, Pt-Os isotopes and platinum-group elements (PGEs) as petrogenetic tracers of Earth evolution and igneous processes as well as thermodynamics and economic geology of the noble metals. The major scientific goals of this continuing program are to quantify the geochemistry of the elements Re, Pt, Os, and other PGEs with respect to their siderophile and lithophile behavior. An understanding of the geochemical systematics of noble metal parent-daugther isotope pairs is essential in interpreting these systems in terms of major active Earth processes as well as in the accretion and primordial differentiation of the early Earth.