Secular Variation of Iron Isotopes in North Atlantic Deep Water

• Published in: Science
• Main Authors: Zhu, Xiang-Kun, O'Nions, R. Keith, Guo, Yueling, Reynolds, Ben C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2000
• Subjects: North Atlantic Deep Water; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.287.5460.2000; https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.287.5460.2000

A high-precision iron isotope time series for a ferromanganese crust demonstrates that the iron isotope composition in North Atlantic Deep Water has changed substantially over the past 6 million years and that iron isotope variations in the crust are closely correlated to those of lead isotopes. The close correlation between the two isotope series indicates that the observed iron isotope variations predominantly reflect those of iron input from terrigenous sources and provides no evidence for biologically induced mass fractionation within North Atlantic Deep Water.