Xenoliths strontium isotope

One of the first studies to show this was performed on Kilboume Hole spinel Uierzolites (Jagoutz et al, 1980). Equihbrated neodymium isotopes in orthopyroxene and diopside defined essentially zero age isochrons, consistent with the very recent eruption age of the host volcanic rocks, while strontium isotopes were un-equilibrated. Stolz and Davies (1988) found varying degrees of equihbration between amphibole, clinopyroxene and apatite in peridotite xenoliths from S.E. Australia. Several samples contained coexisting amphibole and clinopyroxene and had almost reached isotopic equilibrium for strontium but displayed disequilibrium relations for lead and neodymium isotopes. This was taken to indicate more rapid diffusion of strontium than lead and neodymium. Some peridotite and eclogite... 

Kramers J. D. (1977) Lead and strontium isotopes in Cretaceous kimberlites and mantle-derived xenoliths from Southern Africa. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 34, 419-431. 

Porcelli D., O Nions R. K., and O Reilly S. Y. (1986a) Helium and strontium isotopes in ultramaflc xenoliths. Chem. Geol. 54, 237-249. 

Four cratonic, ultradeep xenoliths from S. Africa and Sierra Leone have been analyzed for their strontium and neodymium isotopic compositions (Macdougall and Haggerty, 1999). The neodymium isotopic compositions of minerals from these xenoliths suggest that they were emplaced into the African lithosphere at times ranging from approximately the time of kimberlite emption to hundreds of millions of years earlier. The samples show a complex history of melt... 

Few systematic Sr-Nd isotope studies have been performed on ocean island xenolith suites. Ducea et al. (2002) analyzed clinopyroxenes from plagioclase-spinel and spinel peridotites from Pali, (Oahu, Hawaii) and found relatively depleted strontium and neodymium isotope systematics that they interpret as representing their evolution as residues from the extraction of Pacific Ocean crust. Consistent with this is a 61 20Ma errorchron defined by the pyroxene separates that is within error of the 80-85 Ma age of Pacific lithosphere beneath Hawaii. 

Compared with neodymium and strontium, there are relatively few studies of the lead isotopic compositions of mantle xenoliths and the systematics are probably biased towards samples that show some degree of patent metasomatism in the form of introduction of amphibole and/or mica. Much of the data come from noncratonic metasomatized peridotites (e.g., Stolz and Davies, 1988) and cratonic MARID xenoliths. Some type I xenoliths that do not have patent metasomatism, from cratonic and noncratonic settings (Kramers, 1977 Galer and O Nions, 1989 Walker et al., 1989 Lee et al., 1996) together with various... 

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