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HEIndividual fellowship2022–2024

STECALMY · Source and mobiliTy of mErCury within a continentAL Magmatic sYstem

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2022-07-01 → 2024-06-30
EU contribution
€172,750
Participants
1
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

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Results in brief

Source and mobiliTy of mErCury within a continentAL Magmatic sYstem

Mercury (Hg) is a highly volatile, neurotoxic trace metal mainly emitted naturally into the environment by volcanic degassing, whose concentrations have increased due to several industrial activities. However, its cycle within the Earth and its source and mobility within magmatic systems are still unknown. This is due to the analytical challenges in measuring Hg at very low concentrations (ng/g, parts per billion) because of its high geochemical complexity and the lack of available studies investigating the Hg distribution within the different parts of an individual magmatic plumbing system. To better understand the cycle of Hg in magmatic systems, project STECALMY (Source and mobiliTy of mErcury in ContinentAL Magmatic sYstems) designed two objectives: i) to develop a robust, time- and cost-effective methodological protocol for measuring Hg concentration in crystalline rocks and ii) to place constraints on the source and mobility of Hg in a continental magmatic system using as a study case the Permian (~ 280 – 285 Ma, millions of years) Sesia Magmatic System (SMS, Western Italian Alps). This is a transcrustal igneous section traceable from its deepest roots that belongs to the Ivrea-Verbano zone and Serie dei Laghi units, exposing an almost complete section of the continental crust tilted by ~ 90° during the Alpine orogenesis. The actions will improve the knowledge about Hg in magmatic environments. The outcomes will also provide geochemical backgrounds on Hg that can be used for environmental purposes.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Mercury (Hg) is a volatile element that is used for industrial and technological applications and can be potentially toxic for any ecosystem. In Earth science, its accumulation in sedimentary sequences has been recently used to link the major Phanerozoic climatic and biological crisis to massive volcanic events. This is because volcanic degassing is the main mechanism that releases Hg to the atmosphere. While these aspects are receiving increasing scientific interest, it is still unclear what is the source from which a volcanic system acquires its Hg content prior to magma degassing. The few studies addressing the behaviour of Hg in the deep Earth appear to have adopted sample preparation and analytical procedures that might have unintentionally under- or overestimated the actual Hg contents in the rock samples. Project STECALMY seeks to understand the source and mobility of Hg in the Earth's crust by studying the Sesia Magmatic System (SMS), western Southern Alps, Italy, an exposed continental magmatic system that can be tracked from its deepest roots up to its volcanic products. Through a rigorous sample preparation procedure and by testing different analytical methods, I will firstly develop a methodological and analytical protocol that optimises the analyses of Hg in crystalline rocks. Such protocol will then be used to investigate the Hg content in carefully selected rocks from the SMS, from the uncontaminated and undegassed magmatic rocks to the metamorphic rocks of the crust in which they emplaced and the volcanics erupted to the surface. This will be combined with petrography and major and trace element geochemistry of the same samples, in order to quantify the gain or loss of Hg in magmas during assimilation, crystallisation and degassing in a continental setting. Project STECALMY will produce the first methodologically-robust model on the source and mobility of Hg within a continental magmatic system.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRIESTE · TriesteCoordinatorItaly

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union