Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
Major and Trace Element Geochemistry
Variation Diagrams
Plot chemical differences and trends among related rocks (lavas = magmas?)
Only true for liquids (aphyric lavas and tephras)
Can define and help model products of partial melting and crystallization
Plot ME, TE or both
Major elements, Harker diagrams
Cogenetic lavas = well-defined trends
Lever-rule can quantify fractionating mineral assemblage
Inflected trends = changes in crystallizing mineral assemblage
Simple, yet powerful way to compare/distinguish suites of rocks (magmas)
3327
25
00
30 PED12
ice
H70 2 1 Volcn San Pedro
H72 Qsp Younger Holocene Summit Lavas
00
30
ice Qcf
4 2 Qcf Younger Holocene Composite Flow
0
Qtd
275
0 Tgh H23
250 Qal
QH2-1 pre-Volcn Tatara
Tvs
22 50
Qcg Guadal Lavas 500-350 ka
Hon
Ester o San Pedro
do
Pe ro
Qcg
do
2000 Tgh
Es
Tvs QH1-2
El
H72
H70
3621 m
Older
Volcan
Pellado
Older 2 Holocene
(2002) H73
Holocene
Guadal Lavas
2
Costa and Singer (2002) Harker Diagrams, Volc<n San Pedro Lavas
3
Major and Trace Element Geochemistry
Trace elements
Partitioning between crystalline and liquid phases
Partition coefficient:
liq concentration in mineral
Dxtal =
concentration in liquid
D << 1, incompatible elements
Large Ion Lithophile Elements
(LILE)
K, Rb, Sr, Ba,
Zr, U, Th, REE, etc.
4
Major and Trace Element Geochemistry
Rare Earth Elements (REE)
Particular minerals influence shape of chondrite-normalized REE pattern by
virtue of D values:
Feldspar: 2+ negative Eu anomaly
Garnet: high D for Heavy REE (HREE)
Olivine: D < 0.1 for all REE; uniform effects on magma
Hornblende: D > 1.0 for middle REE
Zircon, Sphene, Apatite: strong affinity, high D for REE
5
Major and Trace Element Geochemistry
Primary Magmas
Formed by partial melting of upper mantle in equilibrium with olivine+pyroxene
unmodified by fractional xtlln, assimilation/contamination, magma mixing, etc.
Truly primary magmas are rare to nonexistant
most basaltic magmas fractionated olivine and assimilated some lithosphere on way up
Criteria not firm but:
Kd = (Fe2+/ Mg)olivine /(Fe2+/Mg)melt
Kd = 0.3
so that:
Mg = Mg/(Mg+ Fe2+) of basalt in equilibrium with Fo91 is 0.68-0.75
Typically:
Ni > 400-500 ppm
Cr > 1000 ppm
SiO2 < 50%
Radiogenic Isotopes
Rutherford and Soddy (1902) [Nobel Prize in Physics]
Experiments indicated that thorium decay to radium is exponential over time.
Radioactivity is an atomic property. Atoms in radioactive elements are unstable. Within
a given amount of time, a fixed proportion of atoms disintegrate to form new atoms.
Disintegration accompanied by emission of alpha or beta particles. Activity, or intensity,
of radioactivity is proportional to number of atoms that disintegrate per unit time.
Thus activity is directly proportional to number of atoms of substance present:
dN
= N
dt
where 8 is the decay constant, i.e., probability that atom will decay in unit time.
N t
dN
No N = to t
ln N/No = -8t
N = No e -8t
basic radioactive decay formula.
No is initial number of atoms
N is number of atoms at time t.
6
Radiogenic Isotopes
The age equation
N = No e -8t
need to realize that daughter atoms D can be expressed as
D = No - N
No = D + N from above
N = (D + N) e -8t
D = N (e -8t - 1)
ln(1+D/N) = 8t
t = 1/8 ln(1+D/N) need to measure D, daughter atoms present, N parent atoms left.
Half-life used to determine decay constants
t = ln2/8 = 0.693/8
If some daughter isotope was incorporated into mineral at to , this must be
subtracted from the amount measured today:
1 D Do
t= ln 1 +
N
7
Radiogenic Isotopes
The K-Ar system
40K undergoes branched decay to 40Ar
half-life of 1.25 x 109 yr
8 = 5.81 x 10-11 yr-1
40Aro is small or can be corrected for
System used to date rocks from historical time, 2 ka, to 4.5 Ga (meteorites)
1 ec + B 40
Ar 40Aro
t= ln 1 +
ec + B ec 40
K
The 40Ar/39Ar variant of K-Ar dating:
1 40
Ar
t= ln 1 + J
39
ArK
J is a constant including a factor for fraction of 39K atoms converted to 39Ar in the
neutron flux of a nuclear reactor
More powerful than K-Ar dating:
more precise; all measurements in single mass spectrometer
smaller samples -- down to single phenocrysts
incremental-heating; many ages from gas released over range of T in single
sample
Thermally disturbed samples yield discordant release spectrum of ages
40Ar/39Arage
spectra and
isochrons