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Are rare earth elements mobile during spilitisation?

Nature volume 267, pages 38–40 (1977)Cite this article

Abstract

FROM the study of rare earth elements (REE) in basalts, spilites and hydrothermally altered basalts in the ocean floor1–5, ophiolites6,7, geosynclines3,8 and low-grade to greenschist facies regions9 it has come to be accepted that the REE are immobile during rock alteration. This conclusion has led to the use of certain abundance ratios, particularly La/Sm and La/Yb, as indicators of parent magma type and genesis. Despite some suggestions2,10 that REE, such as La and Ce, may be mobile during sea-water/rock interaction, hydrothermal alteration or spilitisation of igneous rocks, the REE continue to be treated (e.g. refs 6 and 7) in an analgous fashion to Ti, Y and Zr (ref. 11). Here we show from analyses of a variably altered tholeiite flow that spilitisation may, in some circumstances, affect the REE abundances and their chondrite normalised pattern.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth Sciences, Macquarie University, North Ryde, NSW, 2113, Australia

    PHILLIP L. HELLMAN

  2. Department of Mineralogy, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London, UK

    PAUL HENDERSON

Authors
  1. PHILLIP L. HELLMAN
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  2. PAUL HENDERSON
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HELLMAN, P., HENDERSON, P. Are rare earth elements mobile during spilitisation?. Nature 267, 38–40 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/267038a0

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