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Basalt basement from the Kerguelen Plateau and the trail of a Dupal plume

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Abstract

The first samples of volcanic basement recovered from the Kerguelen Plateau are Lower Cretaceous transitional tholeiites. Isotope and incompatible element abundance ratios for these rocks are similar to ocean island basalts from the southern hemisphere Dupal anomaly region, and geochemical, geological and geophysical data are consistent with volcanic activity associated with a mantle plume. A reconstruction of plate motions suggests that the Kerguelen Plateau formed above a mantle plume in the interval 118-95 Ma, during the opening of the Indian Ocean between India and Australia-Antarctica. This plume was the source of other plateaus and ridges of the eastern Indian Ocean and possibly the Bunbury Basalt of southwestern Australia, and is now beneath Heard Island.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bureau of Mineral Resources, GPO Box 378, ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia

    H. L. Davies, S -s. Sun & C. T. Klootwijk

  2. Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 01239, Cambridge, MA, USA

    F. A. Frey

  3. Université Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue F.D., Roosevelt 50, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium

    I. Gautier

  4. Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, GPO Box 4, ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia

    M. T. McCulloch

  5. Department of Geology, La Trobe University, Vic 3083, Bundoora, Australia

    R. C. Price

  6. Laboratoire de Géologie, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 43 rue Buffon, F-75005, Paris, France

    Y. Bassias & L. Leclaire

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  1. H. L. Davies
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  2. S -s. Sun
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Davies, H.L., Sun, S.s., Frey, F.A. et al. Basalt basement from the Kerguelen Plateau and the trail of a Dupal plume. Contr. Mineral. and Petrol. 103, 457–469 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01041753

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