Abstract
Short-lived radioisotopes such as 129I and 244Pu represent extremely powerful geochemical tools for tracing the early history of the Earth. Terrestrial 129Xe anomalies were first found in CO2-rich well gases from Harding County, New Mexico, and then in gases from mid-ocean-ridge basalts (MORB). Here I show that noble gases and CO2 from Harding County are isotopically indistinguishable from such gases in fresh MORB glasses and that both probably have the same source, namely the upper mantle.
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Staudacher, T. Upper mantle origin for Harding County well gases. Nature 325, 605–607 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/325605a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/325605a0
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