This sulfur contained abundant inclusions of pyrite (Fe[S.sub.2]), covellite (CuS), and Cu-As sulfosalts, as well as measurable amounts of Au, Ag, Ga, Ge, Tl, and other chalcophile elements. The high enrichment factors of these metals suggested that they originated from magma via volcanic degassing.
The lithophile elements (Ca) and a number of chalcophile elements (e.g., Cu, Zn, Ag, and Cd) exhibit moderate correlations between each other (Figure 4(a)), thus suggesting that they share the same source.
Unsurprisingly, nearly the same suite of trace lithophile and chalcophile elements as was measured in sulfur was observed in the analyzed sulfur leachates.
Other chalcophile elements, such as Cd, Ag, Hg, Se, Te, As, Sb, and Pb, as well as bromine and iodine, have average and minimum concentrations in sulfur that exceed their concentrations in rock particles ("5% rock") by at least 1-2 orders of magnitude.
Additionally, the "enrichment factor conception" does not allow distinguishing between the volatile transport of elements and the transport of condensed volatile species that were gaseous at higher temperatures but condensed somewhere in a fumarolic channel beneath the surface (e.g., sulfides and chlorides of chalcophile elements).
All other elements, including the chalcophile elements of Cu and Zn, originated from rock particles.
Highly Siderophile and Strongly Chalcophile Elements in High-Temperature Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry
Mineralogists and geochemists explore highly siderophile elements, which strongly prefer metal, and chalcophile elements, which strongly prefer sulfide, relative to silicate or oxide phases, at very high temperatures.
