Oxygen and sulfur mass-independent isotopic signatures in black crusts: the complementary negative ∆<sup>33</sup>S-reservoir of sulfate aerosols?
Abstract. To better understand the formation and the oxidation pathways leading to gypsum-forming “black crusts” and investigate their bearing on the whole atmospheric SO2 cycle, we measured the oxygen (δ17O, δ18O and ∆17O) and sulfur (δ33S, δ34S, δ36S, ∆33S and ∆36S) isotopic compositions of black crust sulfates sampled on carbonate building stones along a NW-SE cross-section in the Parisian basin. The δ18O and δ34S, ranging between 7.5 and 16.7 ± 0.5 ‰ (n = 27, 2σ) and between −2.6 and 13.9 ± 0.2 ‰ respectively, show anthropogenic SO2 as the main sulfur source (from 2 to 81 %, in average ~30 %) with host-rock sulfates making the complement. This is supported by ∆17O-values (up to 2.6 ‰, in average ~0.86 ‰), requiring > 60 % of atmospheric sulfates in black crusts. Both negative ∆33S-∆36S-values between −0.34 and 0.00 ± 0.01 ‰ and between −0.7 and −0.2 ± 0.2 ‰ respectively were measured in black crusts sulfates, that is typical of a magnetic isotope effect that would occur during the SO2 oxidation on the building stone, leading to 33S-depletion in black crust sulfates and subsequent 33S-enrichment in residual SO2. Given that sulfate aerosols have mostly ∆33S > 0 ‰ and no processes can yet explain this enrichment, resulting in a non-consistent S-budget, black crust sulfates could well represent the complementary negative ∆33S-reservoir of the sulfate aerosols solving the atmospheric SO2 budget.