ALBERT

Description: Shatsky Rise is an Early Cretaceous large igneous province located in the NW Pacific ca. 1500 km east of Japan and is the third-largest oceanic plateau on Earth (after Ontong Java and Kerguelen). Numerous calcium carbonate veins were recovered from the igneous basement of Shatsky Rise during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 324 (Sager et al., 2010). The chemical (Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca) and isotopic (87Sr/86Sr, 143Nd/144Nd, δ18O, δ13C) compositions of these veins were determined to constrain the timing of vein fovaluable data for the reconstruction of past seawater composition. A dominant control of seawater chemistry on calcite composition is evident for most investigated vein samples with varying compositional contribution from the basaltic basement. The Sr/Ca ratio of the vein calcite is positively correlated with Mg/Ca and with δ18O, indicating warmer/colder precipitation temperatures with decreasing/increasing Sr/Ca (and Mg/Ca) ratios, respectively. Distinctly higher formation temperatures (as inferred from oxygen isotope ratios) indicative of hydrothermal vein formation are only observed at one site (Site U1350, drilled into the central part of Shatsky Rise). The highest 87Sr/86Sr ratios (least basement influence) of vein samples at each drill site range form 0.707264 to 0.707550 and are believed to best reflect contemporaneous Early Cretaceous seawater composition. In principle, age information can be deduced by correlating these ratios with the global seawater Sr isotope evolution. Since the Sr isotopic composition of seawater has fluctuated three times between the early and mid Cretaceous (McArthur et al., 2001) no unambiguous precipitation ages can be constrained by this method and vein precipitation could have occurred at any time between ∼80 and 140 Ma. However, based on combined chemical and isotopic data and correlations of vein composition with formation depth and inferred temperature, we argue for a rather early precipitation of the veins shortly after basement formation at each respective drill site.