Distribution of brine in grain boundaries during static recrystallization in wet, synthetic halite: insight from broad ion beam sectioning and SEM observation at cryogenic temperature

Desbois, Guillaume; Urai, János L.; Kukla, Peter A.; Wollenberg, Uwe; Pérez‐Willard, F.; Radi, Zsolt; Riholm, Sandor

doi:10.1007/s00410-011-0656-x

Cited by 29 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…5a and b). The same pattern was observed by Schenk et al (2006), Blackford (2007), Blackford et al (2007) and Desbois et al (2008Desbois et al ( , 2011Desbois et al ( , 2012 in laboratory-processed halite samples. According to these authors, the "foam" structure is produced by the sublimation of ice crystals leaving behind voids in the hydrohalite precipitate.…”

Section: Low Temperature Semsupporting

confidence: 81%

Novel water source for endolithic life in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert

Wierzchoś¹,

Dávila²,

Sánchez-Almazo³

et al. 2012

Preprint

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The hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert, Chile, is possibly the driest and most abiotic place on Earth, yet endolithic microorganisms thrive inside halite pinnacles that are part of ancient salt flats. The existence of this microbial community in an environment that excludes any other life forms suggests biological adaptation to high salinity and desiccation stress, and indicates an alternative source of water for life other than rainfall, fog or dew. Here we show that halite endoliths obtain liquid water through spontaneous capillary condensation at relative humidity (RH) much lower than the deliquescence RH of NaCl. We describe how this condensation occurs inside nano-pores smaller than 100 nm, in a newly identified halite phase that is intimately associated with the endolithic aggregates. This nano-porous phase helps retain liquid water for long periods of time by preventing its evaporation even in conditions of utmost dryness. Our results explain how life has colonized and adapted to one of the most extreme environments on our planet, expanding the water activity envelope for life on Earth, and broadening the spectrum of possible habitats for life beyond our planet

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Section: Low Temperature Semsupporting

confidence: 81%

Novel water source for endolithic life in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert

Wierzchoś¹,

Dávila²,

Sánchez-Almazo³

et al. 2012

Preprint

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“…Figure 1 presents the different microscopy methods, which have been used for microstructural investigations in sedimentary rocks with corresponding typical cross‐section areas and related 2D and 3D resolution achieved by each technique, up to date. Three‐dimensional atom probe (Gordon & Joester, 2011), transmission electron microscopy (Moore et al , 2009; Hooshiar et al , 2010) – electron tomography (Midgley & Dunin‐Borkowski, 2009), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) combined with focussed ion beam (FIB) and broad ion beam (BIB; Desbois et al , 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012a, b; Loucks et al , 2009; Holzer et al , 2010; Keller et al , 2011; Schneider et al , 2011; Houben et al , 2013; Klaver et al , 2012), X‐ray tomography (Tono & Ingrain, 2008; Desrues et al , 2010), confocal microscopy (Friedrich, 1999; Menendez et al , 2001; Petford et al , 2001) and nuclear magnetic resonance microscopy (Pape et al , 2005; Chen et al , 2006) allow investigating microstructures in sedimentary rocks occurring from scale of the atom to the scale of a core sample (Fig. 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For X‐ray tomography, confocal microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance microscopy, this is no longer a problem since these techniques do not require dry samples and work at atmospheric pressure; but techniques related to high vacuum electron microscopy require dry samples. Therefore, cryogenic methods have been applied to SEM imaging to first rapidly freeze the samples to very low temperatures, which effectively quenches the aqueous phase without crystallization of the fluids, and secondly to allow SEM imaging at cryogenic temperatures (Fassi‐Fihri et al , 1992; Durand & Rosenberg, 1998; Fauchadour et al , 1999; Schenk et al , 2006; Holzer et al , 2007, 2010; Desbois et al , 2008, 2009, 2012a, b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Until now BIB tomography was only performed in a stand‐alone BIB cross‐sectioner on a tight gas reservoir sandstone (Desbois et al , 2011) and cementitious material (Mac et al , 2012), with slice down to 15 μm thick allowing to follow the connectivity of grain fabric and of the intergranular volume, but not of the smaller structures because of too thick slices. Moreover, Desbois et al (2012b) presented first results for wet rock salt based on the use of a novel BIB‐cryo‐SEM, where the BIB gun is directly implemented into the cryo‐SEM. At the date of the publication, this instrument was able to produce 2D cross‐sections with noticeable curtaining and fluids were not preserved during the ion milling (Desbois et al , 2012b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Argon broad ion beam tomography in a cryogenic scanning electron microscope: a novel tool for the investigation of representative microstructures in sedimentary rocks containing pore fluid

Desbois

Urai

Pérez‐Willard

et al. 2013

Journal of Microscopy

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SummaryThe contribution describes the implementation of a broad ion beam (BIB) polisher into a scanning electron microscope (SEM) functioning at cryogenic temperature (cryo). The whole system (BIB-cryo-SEM) provides a first generation of a novel multibeam electron microscope that combines broad ion beam with cryogenic facilities in a conventional SEM to produce large, high-quality cross-sections (up to 2 mm 2 ) at cryogenic temperature to be imaged at the state-of-the-art SEM resolution. Cryogenic method allows detecting fluids in their natural environment and preserves samples against desiccation and dehydration, which may damage natural microstructures. The investigation of microstructures in the third dimension is enabled by serial cross-sectioning, providing broad ion beam tomography with slices down to 350 nm thick. The functionalities of the BIB-cryo-SEM are demonstrated by the investigation of rock salts (synthetic coarse-grained sodium chloride synthesized from halite-brine mush cold pressed at 150 MPa and 4.5 GPa, and natural rock salt mylonite from a salt glacier at Qom Kuh, central Iran). In addition, results from BIB-cryo-SEM on a gas shale and Boom Clay are also presented to show that the instrument is suitable for a large range of sedimentary rocks. For the first time, g.desbois@ged.rwth-aachen.de pore and grain fabrics of preserved host and reservoir rocks can be investigated at nm-scale range over a representative elementary area. In comparison with the complementary and overlapping performances of the BIB-SEM method with focused ion beam-SEM and X-ray tomography methods, the BIB cross-sectioning enables detailed insights about morphologies of pores at greater resolution than X-ray tomography and allows the production of large representative surfaces suitable for FIB-SEM investigations of a specific representative site within the BIB cross-section.

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“…FIB-based micro-excavation of buried fluid inclusions has been employed for the SEM-EDS analysis of daughter minerals and precipitated salts such as Fe-K(-Mn) chlorides (Assadzadeh et al, 2016). However, this novel tool can be combined with a cold stage for application to the direct analysis of liquid materials (i.e., using cryo-FIB; e.g., Desbois et al, 2008Desbois et al, , 2012, resulting in high-resolution observation of the wet boundaries of minerals. A combination of cryo-FIB-SEM-EDS would significantly enhance the possibility of analyzing the chemical compositions of liquid materials sporadically enclosed in the solid phase, such as fluid inclusions in metamorphic rocks, the sizes and numbers of which commonly limit the application of existing methods.…”

Section: Micro-excavation and Direct Chemical Analysis Of Individual mentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-excavation and direct chemical analysis of individual fluid inclusion by cryo-FIB-SEM-EDS: Application to the UHP talc-garnet-chloritoid schist from the Makbal Metamorphic Complex, Kyrgyz Tian-Shan

et al. 2018

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Direct chemical analysis of a single fluid inclusion was conducted by micro-excavation at cryo-temperatures. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a focused ion beam (FIB), an energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS), and a cold stage, were used to analyze the chemical composition of the sample fluid inclusion, which was trapped in the ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) talc-garnet-chloritoid schist obtained from the Makbal metamorphic complex, Kyrgyz. Conventional techniques such as microthermometry and cryo-temperature and room-temperature Raman spectroscopy enabled the detection of NaCl and CaCl 2 as solute species in the fluid inclusions, as well as high salinity of 20.5 mass% CaCl 2 and 1.7 mass% NaCl with the assumption of a NaCl-CaCl 2-H 2 O ternary system. However, additional chemical analysis using the present cryo-FIB-SEM-EDS system further revealed the presence of K as a solute element, which is hardly identified by conventional techniques. Petrographic examination of the fluid inclusions indicated that they had been trapped during the exhumation stage of the UHP talc-garnet-chloritoid schist, possibly originating from the decompression breakdown of lawsonite. The data acquired from the present study challenges previous reports of the existence of simple chemical system of aqueous fluids in high-pressure and UHP metamorphic terrane in eastern Asia. This is imperative because misidentification of solute species introduces errors into salinity estimation, resulting in inaccuracy propagation in quantitative analytical processes such as LA-ICP-MS. A detailed fluid inclusion petrography would thus require accurate quantitative analysis involving FIB-based sample-preparation and SEM-EDS analysis.

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Distribution of brine in grain boundaries during static recrystallization in wet, synthetic halite: insight from broad ion beam sectioning and SEM observation at cryogenic temperature

Cited by 29 publications

References 42 publications

Novel water source for endolithic life in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert

Novel water source for endolithic life in the hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert

Argon broad ion beam tomography in a cryogenic scanning electron microscope: a novel tool for the investigation of representative microstructures in sedimentary rocks containing pore fluid

Micro-excavation and direct chemical analysis of individual fluid inclusion by cryo-FIB-SEM-EDS: Application to the UHP talc-garnet-chloritoid schist from the Makbal Metamorphic Complex, Kyrgyz Tian-Shan

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