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. 2015 Feb 10:5:8355.
doi: 10.1038/srep08355.

Earth's Phosphides in Levant and insights into the source of Archean prebiotic phosphorus

Sergey N Britvin  1 , Michail N Murashko  2 , Yevgeny Vapnik  3 , Yury S Polekhovsky  2 , Sergey V Krivovichev  1
Affiliations

Earth's Phosphides in Levant and insights into the source of Archean prebiotic phosphorus

Sergey N Britvin et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Natural phosphides--the minerals containing phosphorus in a redox state lower than zero--are common constituents of meteorites but virtually unknown on the Earth. Herein we present the first rich occurrence of iron-nickel phosphides of terrestrial origin. Phosphide-bearing rocks are exposed in three localities in the surroundings of the Dead Sea, Levant: in the northern Negev Desert, Israel and Transjordan Plateau, south of Amman, Jordan. Seven minerals from the ternary Fe-Ni-P system have been identified with five of them, NiP2, Ni5P4, Ni2P, FeP and FeP2, previously unknown in nature. The results of the present study could provide a new insight on the terrestrial origin of natural phosphides--the most likely source of reactive prebiotic phosphorus at the times of the early Earth.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Phosphide occurrences in Hatrurim Formation.
a, Location map of Mottled Zone outcrops (indicated as brown areas). Phosphide localities in the Hatrurim basin, Negev Desert (#1 and #2) and Daba-Siwaqa complex, Transjordan Plateau (locality #3) are indicated by red circles. b, Detailed scheme showing positions of phosphide-bearing localities in the Hatrurim basin, Negev Desert. The positions of the localities were determined during the field trips by means of GPS (Michail Murashko and Yevgeny Vapnik). The maps a and b were created in Adobe Photoshop CS5.1.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Phosphide associations of the Mottled Zone.
a, Brecciated paralava with phosphide mineralization in a quarry in Daba-Siwaqa complex, Transjordan Plateau (locality #3). b, Polished slice of paralava breccia sampled from the quarry in the locality #3. Contact zone between clinopyroxene-anorthite paralava (bottom) and calcined metamorphosed chalk (top) is traced by the chain of black phosphide grains marked by arrows. White patches and veinlets are composed by late hydrothermal aragonite. c, 2.5 mm size grain of phosphides in silicate matrix. Nahal Halamish, Hatrurim basin (locality #1). d, Chains of phosphide grains scattered along the boundaries between silicate grains (locality #3). Polished section, reflected light. e, Grain of barringerite, Fe2P, in silicate matrix. Polished section, reflected light. Nahal Zohar, Hatrurim basin (locality #2). f, Zuktamrurite, FeP2, (dark areas – points 1,3,4) intergrown with transjordanite, Ni2P, (light areas – point 2). Phosphides are embedded into calcite-silicate matrix. Backscattered electron image. Locality #1. Photographs were made by Yevgeny Vapnik (a), Michail Murashko (b,f), Sergey Britvin (c,d,e). Photographs were assembled in Adobe Photoshop CS5.1.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Ternary diagram for the Fe-Ni-P system illustrating compositional ranges of meteoritic phosphides (blue circles) in comparison with terrestrial phosphides from the Hatrurim Formation (red circles).
Based on the data from refs ,,,,,, and. The diagram was created in Origin 8.6 Academic Edition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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