MA Yu-han 1,2, ZHANG Hong-jie 1,2, FAN Hai-feng 1*, GAO Jian-feng 1
(1. State Key Laboratory of Ore Deposit Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang 550081, China;
2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)
Abstract: Cerium, as an important rare earth element, is present widely in various geological reservoirs and is involved in processes of diagenesis and mineralization. Cerium is one of the few rare earth elements with variable valence states (Ce3+, Ce4+), and the cerium anomaly is widely used to trace changes of redox conditions. With the continuous development of mass spectrometry technology, the high precision measurement of cerium isotope has been realized, and some important progresses have been made in fields of geological dating, redox state tracing, and others. Based on the previous studies, the measurement methods of cerium isotope are summarized systematically in this paper. Cerium isotope composition is measured mainly using the Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TIMS) and Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS), with the highest analytical accuracy of 0.02‰ (2SD). Then, combined with the latest research results, the compositional characteristics of cerium isotopes of different geological reservoirs (such as celestial bodies, ocean, etc.) and the fractionation mechanisms of cerium isotopes in different environments (such as low temperature, different pH values, etc.) are comprehensively summarized. The fractionation mechanisms of cerium isotopes in different temperature systems are still lack of the verification of simulation experiment and support of theoretical calculation. Finally, the applications of cerium isotopes in tracing material source, tracing sedimentary environment, and the geological dating are summarized. It is shown that the cerium isotope has great application potential in relevant geochemical researches.
Keywords: cerium isotope; mass spectrometry technology; geological reservoir; isotopic fractionation mechanism
ACTA MINERALOGICA SINICA Vol. 43, No. 3, 2023, Page 284
