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Micro- to nano-scale characterization of martite from a banded iron formation in India and a lateritic soil in Brazil

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Abstract

The pseudomorphic transformation of magnetite into hematite (martitization) is widespread in geological environments, but the process and mechanism of this transformation is still not fully understood. Micro- and nano-scale techniques—scanning electron microscopy, focused ion bean transmission electron microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy—were used in combination with X-ray diffraction, Curie balance and magnetic hysteresis analyses, as well as Mössbauer spectroscopy on martite samples from a banded iron formation (2.9 Ga, Dharwar Craton, India), and from lateritic soils, which have developed on siliciclastic and volcanic rocks previously affected by metamorphic fluids (Minas Gerais, Brazil). Octahedral crystals from both samples are composed of hematite with minor patches of magnetite, but show different structures. The Indian crystals show trellis of subhedral magnetite hosting maghemite in sharp contact with interstitial hematite crystals, which suggests exsolution along parting planes. Grain boundary migrations within the hematite point to dynamic crystallization during deformation. Dislocations and fluid inclusions in hematite reflect its precipitation related to a hydrothermal event. In the Brazilian martite, dislocations are observed and maghemite occurs as Insel structures and nano-twin sets. The latter, typical for the hematite, are a transformation product from maghemite into hematite. For both samples, a deformation-induced hydrothermally driven transformation from magnetite via maghemite to hematite is proposed. The transformation from magnetite into maghemite comprises intermediate non-stoichiometric magnetite steps related to a redox process. This study shows that martite found in supergene environment may result from earlier hypogene processes.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by the national PNP Planétologie, PRES UNIVERSUD Planétologie and the UMR IDES 8148 (CNRS-UPS) and COFECUB-CAPES (UPS, Orsay France-UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil). It was part of the ESF project “Early Habitats of Early life”. The authors thank Rémy Pichon, Luce Delabesse, Valérie Godard and Olivier Dufour (UMR IDES), Gilles Montagnac (ENS-Lyon, Lyon) and Anja Schreiber (GFZ-Potsdam) for technical help. The authors thank M. Rieder for handling the manuscript, A. Cabral, H. Siemes and T. Angerer for comments and suggestions to fundamentally improve the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ERAMET RESEARCH, 1 Avenue Albert Einstein, 78190, Trappes, France

    Beate Orberger

  2. Université Paris-Sud, Laboratoire GEOPS, UMR 8148 (CNRS-UPS), Bât 504, 91405, Orsay, France

    Beate Orberger, Alina Tudryn & Rachael Morgan

  3. UPMC, Univ Paris 06, ISTeP, CNRS, UMR 7193, 4 Place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France

    Christiane Wagner

  4. Department 4, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), Telegrafenberg, 14482, Potsdam, Germany

    Richard Wirth

  5. Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, Diamantina, Minas Gerais, 39100-00, Brazil

    José D. Fabris

  6. LUNAM, Institut des Molécules et Matériaux du Mans, IMMM UMR CNRS 6283, Université du Maine, 72085, Le Mans, France

    Jean Marc Greneche

  7. Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, 31270-901, Brazil

    Carlos Rosière

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  1. Beate Orberger
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Correspondence to Beate Orberger.

Appendix

Appendix

Raman spectra of goethite in the Indian sample. The spectra were acquired under the conditions reported in the text and at the same spot every 40 s. Red lines correspond to the position of active modes for goethite (de Faria et al. 1997; Hanesh 2009). A band at ~418 cm−1 (dashed red line) on the wing of the largest peak at 385 cm−1 has also been reported by Hanesh (2009). According to these authors, the broad bands above 1,000 cm−1 are not “diagnostic” for goethite and may record some contaminant species. Apart from a decrease in the background fluorescence between 1,000 and 1,400 cm−1 with increasing laser exposition time, there is no significant variation in the observed spectral modes, either in position or in intensity, for a total time of irradiation up to 8 min. Moreover, there is no appearance of new bands, which would indicate a possible transformation of goethite under the laser beam (in maghemite or hematite; Hanesh 2009).

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Orberger, B., Wagner, C., Tudryn, A. et al. Micro- to nano-scale characterization of martite from a banded iron formation in India and a lateritic soil in Brazil. Phys Chem Minerals 41, 651–667 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00269-014-0679-8

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