280100 VO Geological applications of radiogenic, volatile and metal stable isotopes and trace elements (2024S)

The isotopic and geochemical characterisation of geological materials is a fundamental tool in Earth and Planetary Science, and a fast-moving field. Continued rapid advances in laboratory and analytical techniques have allowed to obtain elemental and isotopic information across the periodic table with ever-increasing precision and accuracy, enabling the analysis of ever-smaller sample volumes at high spatial resolution. This lecture series will recapitulate the basics of the discipline, review sample preparation and instrumentation and their limitations, and highlight the varied uses of radiogenic, volatile and metal stable isotope ratios in combination with trace elements to address specific problems in planetary evolution, geochronology, and Earth systems science with illustrations from recent case studies.
The aims of this course are to (1) familiarise students with some of the major outstanding questions regarding solid Earth and its interaction with the ocean-atmosphere system through time, and (2) raise their awareness as to the challenges, opportunities and future directions of applying high- and low-temperature element and isotope geochemistry to address these questions.

Preliminary structure:

1. Principles of trace-element geochemistry (including sample preparation and analytical techniques)
2. Basics of isotope geochemistry: Radiogenic and stable isotopes and the origin of their variations
3. Accurate and precise measurement of isotope ratios and recent instrumental developments
4. The stuff Earth is made of: Insights from multiple stable isotopes
5. Core formation and core-mantle interaction: Why it matters, what W-He isotopes tell us and what it means
6. Unravelling Earth evolution from the surface to the mantle with the Sr isotope system: Onset of continental weathering and establishment of the depleted mantle reservoir
7. Re-Os: Ultra-trace elements in trace phases and their application in high- and low-temperature geochemistry and geochronology
8. Challenges and opportunities in obtaining and interpreting lithospheric mantle ages
9. Mass-dependent and -independent S isotope fractionation in surficial environments: What they tell us about atmospheric O2 evolution and the deep crustal subduction
10. The multiple isotopes and valence states of Fe as tracers of redox processes in high-and low-temperature environments
11. Mg and Zn isotopes as distinct tracers of carbonate recycling in subduction zones and into the convecting mantle
12. Principles of chemostratigraphy
13. Palaeo-environment reconstructions: Insights from the biomineral archive
14. Isotopes and mineral resources (I): Radiogenic and light stable isotopes
15. Isotopes and mineral resources (II): Metal stable isotopes