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Cadmium sulfide in a Mesoproterozoic terrestrial environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

J. Parnell ,
J. Still ,
S. Spinks ,
W. Thayalan  and
S. Bowden
J. Parnell*
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
J. Still
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
S. Spinks
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
W. Thayalan
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
S. Bowden
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Aberdeen, King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
*
*E-mail: j.parnell@abdn.ac.uk
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Abstract

Cadmium sulfide mineralization occurs in grey-black shales of the late Mesoproterozoic Stoer Group, Torridonian Supergroup, northwest Scotland. Cadmium is strongly redox-controlled, and normally concentrated in anoxic marine sediments or epigenetic mineralization involving organic matter. However the Stoer Group was deposited in a terrestrial environment, including lacustrine deposits of shale. At the limited levels of atmospheric oxygenation in the Mesoproterozoic (∼10% of present), the near-surface environment could have fluctuated between oxic and anoxic, allowing fractionation of Cd from Zn, and the formation of Cd sulfide rather than Cd-bearing sphalerite. This occurrence emphasizes the importance of the Stoer Group as a record of the Mesoproterozoic terrestrial environment.

Keywords

cadmiumgreenockiteMesoproterozoicTorridonianoxygenationScotland
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , February 2014 , pp. 47 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2014

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