Volatile Metals and Metalloids in Hydrothermal Gases
Britta Planer-Friedrich and Broder J. Merkel
Environmental Science & Technology, 2006
Abstract
Volatile metals and metalloids were sampled from hot
springs, fumaroles, and a hydrothermally influenced wetland
in Yellowstone National Park. The sampling was based
on diffusion through gas sampling chambers. Collected
gases were stabilized by dissolution and oxidation in 1:100
diluted NaOCl. Special procedures were developed to
analyze the oxidized samples by GF-AAS and HG-AAS. For
ICP-MS, samples had to be blank-corrected for polyatomic
isotope interferences, especially by 23Na35Cl+ and 23Na37Cl+ on 58Ni and 60Ni and by 40Ar23Na+ on 63Cu. From the
concentrations trapped in solution, net diffusion rates
were calculated by Fick’s first law. The highest concentrations
reached a maximum of 8 g/m3 for volatile silicon. Volatile
nickel, tungsten, zinc, copper, and molybdenum, previously
only known from anthropogenic sources, occurred naturally
in the hydrothermal gases in ranges of tens to hundreds
of µg/m3. Replicate measurements indicated significant
temporal variations in concentrations, probably the result
of complex changes in the hydrothermal regime as well
as varying microbial activity. Global correlations between
gaseous and superficial aqueous phases were missing.
NOTE: the article text supplied here is for educational purposes only.
*Don't have Adobe Reader?
Get the latest version.
NOTE: Some versions of Adobe Reader have problems with Google Chrome. Either resize the browser to view the paper or enable
the Chrome internal PDF viewer by entering chrome://plugins in your address bar and clicking enable for the Chrome PDF Viewer plugin.