Neodymium isotopes in flood basalts from the Siberian Platform and inferences about their mantle sources

  1. D. J. DePaolo† and
  2. G. J. Wasserburg‡
  1. 1The Lunatic Asylum, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125

Abstract

The initial isotopic compositions of Nd and Sr in basalts from the Central Siberian Plateau and other major continental flood basalts are reported. The continental flood basalts appear to be the product of partial melting of mantle sources that consist of relatively primitive undifferentiated material and are clearly distinct from midocean ridge basalts, which sample mantle reservoirs that have been modified by extraction of continental crust earlier in earth history. These observations provide fundamental constraints on models of mantle structure and dynamics. Isotopic effects of crustal contamination are clearly recognizable in some continental flood basalts, but these effects can be distinguished from isotopic patterns inherited from the mantle magma sources.

Footnotes

  • ↵ † Present address: Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024.

  • ↵ ‡ To whom reprint requests should be addressed.

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  1. PNAS 1979-07 vol. 76 no. 7 3056-3060
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