We present new data of oxygen isotopes in marine sulfate ( δ 18 O SO4 ) in pore fluid profiles through organic-rich deep-sea sediments from 11 ODP sites around the world. In almost all sites studied sulfate is depleted with depth, through both organic matter oxidation and anaerobic methane oxidation. The δ 18 O SO4 increases rapidly near the top of the sediments, from seawater values of 9‰ to m...

Microbial sulfate reduction in oil reservoirs (biosouring) is often associated with secondary oil production where seawater containing high sulfate concentrations (~28 mM) is injected into a reservoir to maintain pressure and displace oil. The sulfide generated from biosouring can cause corrosion of infrastructure, health exposure risks, and higher production costs. Isotope monitoring is a prom...

Galactic cosmic ray (GCR) measurements of the phosphorus, sulfur, argon, and calcium isotopes made by the Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer (CRIS) aboard NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer are reported over the energy range from ∼100 to ∼400 MeV/nucleon. The propagation of cosmic rays through the Galaxy and heliosphere is modeled to determine isotopic source abundance ratios P/S , S/S , Ar/Ar ,...

Subduction zones modulate the chemical evolution of the Earth's mantle. Water and volatile elements in the slab are released as fluids into the mantle wedge and this process is widely considered to result in the oxidation of the sub-arc mantle. However, the chemical composition and speciation of these fluids, which is critical for the mobility of economically important elements, remain poorly c...

Mass-independent fractionation of sulfur isotopes (reported as Δ(33)S) recorded in Archean sedimentary rocks helps to constrain the composition of Earth's early atmosphere and the timing of the rise of oxygen ~2.4 billion years ago. Although current hypotheses predict uniformly negative Δ(33)S for Archean seawater sulfate, this remains untested through the vast majority of Archean time. We appl...

(34)S enrichment is shown to occur during sulfurization reactions and for the first time conclusively attributed to an isotope equilibrium effect rather than selective addition of (34)S enriched nucleophiles.

We investigated the influence of organic substrates and phosphate concentration on the rates of dissimilatory microbial sulfate reduction and the 34S/32S isotopic fractionation produced by several Desulfovibrio species. Our experiments corroborate the previously reported species-specific correlation between sulfur isotope fractionation and cell-specific sulfate reduction rates. We also identify...