Pyrite is the most common sulphide in the Earth’s crust and occurs in many different types of rock. Following many decades of research, the morphology, trace element and isotopic composition of pyrite can be used to reconstruct a range of bio- and geological processes across a broad spectrum of scales.
In the oceans, pyrite is the dominant sink for reduced sulphur and is intimately connected to biological pathways of sulphate reduction, meaning the formation and isotopic composition of pyrite can be used to reconstruct the redox architecture of ancient marine environments and constrain carbon burial fluxes. On land, pyrite weathering can be a geologically relevant process leading to carbon release to the atmosphere. As a major gangue mineral phase in hydrothermal ore deposits, the formation and geochemistry of pyrite can be used to investigate and potentially detect ore forming processes. At the other end of the life-cycle, the pyrite oxidation during acid mine drainage and subsurface geological storage is a major environmental concern.
This session encourages contributions from scientists investigating pyrite across a range of physico-bio-geochemical conditions in various earth science disciplines, including but not limited to paleoenvironmental reconstructions, nuclear waste storage, ore deposit formation or acid mine drainage. Our aim is to foster intradisciplinary knowledge transfer between different research areas and approaches, including geochemical field studies, in-situ and laboratory investigations of rocks and formations as well as numerical simulation studies within the given context.