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Widespread abiotic methane in chromitites

Recurring discoveries of abiotic methane in gas seeps and springs in ophiolites and peridotite massifs worldwide raised the question of where, in which rocks, methane was generated. Answers will impact the theories on life origin related to serpentinization of ultramafic rocks, and the origin of met...

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Autores principales: Etiope, G., Ifandi, E., Nazzari, M., Procesi, M., Tsikouras, B., Ventura, G., Steele, A., Tardini, R., Szatmari, P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5992163/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29880799
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27082-0
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author Etiope, G.
Ifandi, E.
Nazzari, M.
Procesi, M.
Tsikouras, B.
Ventura, G.
Steele, A.
Tardini, R.
Szatmari, P.
author_facet Etiope, G.
Ifandi, E.
Nazzari, M.
Procesi, M.
Tsikouras, B.
Ventura, G.
Steele, A.
Tardini, R.
Szatmari, P.
author_sort Etiope, G.
collection PubMed
description Recurring discoveries of abiotic methane in gas seeps and springs in ophiolites and peridotite massifs worldwide raised the question of where, in which rocks, methane was generated. Answers will impact the theories on life origin related to serpentinization of ultramafic rocks, and the origin of methane on rocky planets. Here we document, through molecular and isotopic analyses of gas liberated by rock crushing, that among the several mafic and ultramafic rocks composing classic ophiolites in Greece, i.e., serpentinite, peridotite, chromitite, gabbro, rodingite and basalt, only chromitites, characterized by high concentrations of chromium and ruthenium, host considerable amounts of (13)C-enriched methane, hydrogen and heavier hydrocarbons with inverse isotopic trend, which is typical of abiotic gas origin. Raman analyses are consistent with methane being occluded in widespread microfractures and porous serpentine- or chlorite-filled veins. Chromium and ruthenium may be key metal catalysts for methane production via Sabatier reaction. Chromitites may represent source rocks of abiotic methane on Earth and, potentially, on Mars.
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spelling pubmed-59921632018-06-21 Widespread abiotic methane in chromitites Etiope, G. Ifandi, E. Nazzari, M. Procesi, M. Tsikouras, B. Ventura, G. Steele, A. Tardini, R. Szatmari, P. Sci Rep Article Recurring discoveries of abiotic methane in gas seeps and springs in ophiolites and peridotite massifs worldwide raised the question of where, in which rocks, methane was generated. Answers will impact the theories on life origin related to serpentinization of ultramafic rocks, and the origin of methane on rocky planets. Here we document, through molecular and isotopic analyses of gas liberated by rock crushing, that among the several mafic and ultramafic rocks composing classic ophiolites in Greece, i.e., serpentinite, peridotite, chromitite, gabbro, rodingite and basalt, only chromitites, characterized by high concentrations of chromium and ruthenium, host considerable amounts of (13)C-enriched methane, hydrogen and heavier hydrocarbons with inverse isotopic trend, which is typical of abiotic gas origin. Raman analyses are consistent with methane being occluded in widespread microfractures and porous serpentine- or chlorite-filled veins. Chromium and ruthenium may be key metal catalysts for methane production via Sabatier reaction. Chromitites may represent source rocks of abiotic methane on Earth and, potentially, on Mars. Nature Publishing Group UK 2018-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5992163/ /pubmed/29880799 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27082-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2018 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Etiope, G.
Ifandi, E.
Nazzari, M.
Procesi, M.
Tsikouras, B.
Ventura, G.
Steele, A.
Tardini, R.
Szatmari, P.
Widespread abiotic methane in chromitites
title Widespread abiotic methane in chromitites
title_full Widespread abiotic methane in chromitites
title_fullStr Widespread abiotic methane in chromitites
title_full_unstemmed Widespread abiotic methane in chromitites
title_short Widespread abiotic methane in chromitites
title_sort widespread abiotic methane in chromitites
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5992163/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29880799
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-27082-0
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