Upper Cenozoic basalts with high Sr87/Sr86 and Sr/Rb ratios, southern Great Basin, western United States

Bulletin of the Geological Society of America
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Abstract

Upper Cenozoic basalts from southwestern Nevada and east-central California are unusually rich in both strontium (~ 1,200 ppm) and Sr87 (initial Sr87/Sr86 ~ 0.707). The average Rb/Sr ratio of these basalts is too low to have generated the observed Sr87/Sr86 ratio during the 4.6 b.y. of the Earth's existence, and the high strontium contents and low Rb/Sr ratios effectively rule out introduction to the basalts of the high Sr87/Sr86 values through contamination by more radiogenic material during ascent through the crust. Instead, the basalts must have been derived from unusual mantle material in which an originally high Rb/Sr ratio was markedly lowered during an earlier phase of magmatic activity.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Upper Cenozoic basalts with high Sr87/Sr86 and Sr/Rb ratios, southern Great Basin, western United States
Series title Bulletin of the Geological Society of America
DOI 10.1130/0016-7606(1971)82[3503:UCBWHS]2.0.CO;2
Volume 82
Issue 12
Year Published 1971
Language English
Publisher Geological Society of America
Description 7 p.
First page 3503
Last page 3509
Country United States
State Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah
Other Geospatial Great Basin
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