Earth's Phosphides in Levant and insights into the source of Archean prebiotic phosphorus

Abstract

Natural phosphides - the minerals containing phosphorus in a redox state lower than zero – are common constituents of meteorites but virtually unknown on the Earth. Herein we present the first rich occurrence of iron-nickel phosphides of terrestrial origin. Phosphide-bearing rocks are exposed in three localities in the surroundings of the Dead Sea, Levant: in the northern Negev Desert, Israel and Transjordan Plateau, south of Amman, Jordan. Seven minerals from the ternary Fe-Ni-P system have been identified with five of them, NiP2, Ni5P4, Ni2P, FeP and FeP2, previously unknown in nature. The results of the present study could provide a new insight on the terrestrial origin of natural phosphides – the most likely source of reactive prebiotic phosphorus at the times of the early Earth.

Platinum-Group Minerals and Other Accessory Phases in Chromite Deposits of the Alapaevsk Ophiolite, Central Urals, Russia

“…The ideal calculated stoichiometry, based on the average of 10 analyses, is (Ni,Fe) 5 P ( Figure 11, Table A5) (see Appendix A). Its composition has been plotted in the binary diagram presented in Figure 11 and compared with the only five Ni-phosphides accepted by the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) as mineral species, namely nickel phosphide [25,26]), melliniite [27]), halamishite, negevite, and transjordanite [28]. The diagram shows that the analyzed (Ni,Fe) 5 P in the Alapaevsk chromitite contains the highest value of Ni and it shows the highest Ni/P ratio.…”

“…Natural phases in the Ni-Fe-P system are rare, consisting of only five minerals with Fe > Ni, namely allabogdanite (Fe,Ni) 2 P, barringerite (Fe,Ni) 2 P, murashkoite FeP, schreibersite (Fe,Ni) 3 P, and zuktamrurite FeP 2 , [28,[63][64][65]; and five minerals with Ni > Fe, such as halamishite Ni 5 P 4 , melliniite (Ni,Fe) 4 P, negevite NiP 2 , nickelphosphide (Ni,Fe) 3 P, and transjordanite Ni 2 P [25][26][27][28]. All these minerals have been found in meteorites, with the exception of schreibersite, which was also reported in reduced differentiated lenses in basalts and in hydrothermal replacement in petrified wood (http://mindat.…”

The evolution of the surface of the mineral schreibersite in prebiotic chemistry

“…Notable exceptions are the phosphides recently discovered near the Dead Sea and iron phosphide in fulgurites. [16][17][18] Together, these minerals probably account for very little of the total surficial P on the earth, thus meteoritic sources are likely more important for providing phosphide minerals to geologic environments. Meteoritic sources of P may have been an important source due to their high reactivity and high flux on the early earth.…”

The Innovation and Adoption of Iron in the Ancient Near East

“…Telluric (naturally occurring terrestrial metallic) iron is extremely rare and most deposits are very small; its exploitation seems to have been restricted to Inuit populations in Greenland (Buchwald 1992;Yalçin 1999, p. 184). There are geological reports of grains of telluric iron in the southern Levant (Britvin et al 2015), but there is no evidence that this was ever exploited.…”