Behaviour of rare earth elements during submarine weathering of tholeiitic basalt

DREDGED oceanic basalts and those sampled by deep-ocean drilling have commonly undergone some weathering with subsequent changes in their chemical composition 1–7 . The rare-earth elements (REE) La–Lu are generally considered to be unaffected by weathering and are thus often used to characterise var...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1978-07, Vol.274 (5667), p.147-149
Main Authors: LUDDEN, JOHN N, THOMPSON, GEOFFREY
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
multidisciplinary
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
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Summary:DREDGED oceanic basalts and those sampled by deep-ocean drilling have commonly undergone some weathering with subsequent changes in their chemical composition 1–7 . The rare-earth elements (REE) La–Lu are generally considered to be unaffected by weathering and are thus often used to characterise variations in basalt and magma composition. When considered relative to chondritic abundances 8 , the overall REE distribution is a critical diagnostic tool. In particular, the relative depletion of light-REE is used to discriminate between magma types. We present here new findings which show that REE are affected by low-temperature weathering processes. In particular, the light-REE show enrichments which may result in a basalt with a primary light-REE depleted pattern showing a flat or enriched light-REE pattern.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/274147a0