The origin of rare alkali metals in geothermal fluids of southern Tibet, China: A silicon isotope perspective

Geothermal waters from the Semi, Dagejia and Kawu hot springs in the Shiquanhe-Yarlung Zangbo geothermal field of southern Tibet (China) are highly enriched in rare alkali metals (RAM). However, the enrichment mechanism is still hotly debated. Here, we report the first silicon isotope data of these...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2019-05, Vol.9 (1), p.7918-7918, Article 7918
Main Authors: Wang, Wei, Wei, Hai-Zhen, Jiang, Shao-Yong, Tan, Hong-Bing, Eastoe, Christopher J., Williams-Jones, Anthony E., Hohl, Simon V., Wu, He-Pin
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
704/2151/209
704/2151/241
Hot springs
Humanities and Social Sciences
Isotopes
Leaching
Metals
multidisciplinary
Precipitation
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Silicon
Water springs
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Geothermal waters from the Semi, Dagejia and Kawu hot springs in the Shiquanhe-Yarlung Zangbo geothermal field of southern Tibet (China) are highly enriched in rare alkali metals (RAM). However, the enrichment mechanism is still hotly debated. Here, we report the first silicon isotope data of these geothermal waters to unravel the origin of the extreme RAM enrichments. Sinter precipitation in the spring vents and water-rock interaction in the deep reservoir controlled both the silicon budget and silicon isotope fractionation. The rates of water-rock interaction and sinter precipitation in three spring sites decrease in the sequences Semi > Kawu > Dagejia, and Dagejia > Kawu > Semi respectively. Silicon isotope fractionation during sinter precipitation (i.e. Δ 30 Si precipitate-solution  
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-019-44249-5