Publication Date:
2019-07-12
Description:
Precambrian Sr isotope stratigraphy was investigated by determining variations in Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios in the Upper Proterozoic carbonate succession from Svalbard and East Greenland. Data from this study were combined with those from literature to construct a curve of Sr-87/Sr-86 versus time for Upper Proterozoic seawater. The curve for the Upper Riphean-Vandian showed that the isotopic composition of Sr in seawater was low (Delta Sr-87 of about -500) between 900 and 650 Ma but rose rapidly to about +30 by 600 Ma (this range of long-term variation exceeds the total Phanerozoic variation). The very low values of Delta Sr-87 inferred for the Riphean require that, for this time, the submarine hydrothermal water flux was a large fraction of the Sr input to the oceans, while the rise in Delta Sr-87 in the Upper Proterozoic seawater reflects both a change in the ratio of hydrothermal and continental fluxes of Sr to the oceans, and a change in the isotopic composition of Sr from continental sources.
Keywords:
GEOPHYSICS
Type:
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (ISSN 0016-7037); 53; 2331-233
Format:
text
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