SR, ND AND PB ISOTOPIC VARIATION ALONG THE PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RISECREST, 53-57-DEGREES-S - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COMPOSITION AND DYNAMICS OF THE SOUTH-PACIFIC UPPER-MANTLE
Pr. Castillo et al., SR, ND AND PB ISOTOPIC VARIATION ALONG THE PACIFIC-ANTARCTIC RISECREST, 53-57-DEGREES-S - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE COMPOSITION AND DYNAMICS OF THE SOUTH-PACIFIC UPPER-MANTLE, Earth and planetary science letters, 154(1-4), 1998, pp. 109-125
Sr, Nd and Pb isotope data for basalts from spreading axes and off-axi
s volcanoes near the Pacific-Antarctic risecrest, from Vacquier transf
orm to just south of Udintsev transform, reveal an isotopically hetero
geneous upper mantle. The isotopic composition of the mantle is repres
ented by three end-members: (1) the 'depleted' source of the bulk of P
acific normal-type mid-ocean ridge basalts (N-MORB); (2) an 'enriched'
source that produces basalts of the Hollister Ridge; and (3) a source
, restricted to two adjacent sample locales, similar to that of Indian
MORE. The distribution of these isotopic heterogeneities along the Pa
cific-Antarctic risecrest suggests two alternative hypotheses on the n
ature and dynamics of the south Pacific upper mantle. The whole area c
ould be a single N-MORB mantle domain that shows a weak but continuous
increase in Nd-143/Nd-144 from northeast to southwest across more tha
n 2000 km of sea floor. The gradient is unrelated to the Louisville ho
tspot because Louisville basalts have low Nd-143/Nd-144 and the hotspo
t's influence along the ridge is spatially limited and near the high N
d-143/Nd-144 southwestern end of the gradient. The gradient appears co
nsistent with a southwestward flow of the Pacific N-MORB-type mantle t
hat has been proposed mainly on the basis of ridge morphology. That th
e N-MORB mantle domain is continuous across Heezen suggests that large
-scale magmatic segmentation is not Sr-87/Sr-86, Delta Nd and Delta 8/
4 of samples related to the largest structural offsets of the Pacific
ridges. Alternatively, the higher from southwest of the Heezen transfo
rm relative to those from the northeast could result from southwestwar
d pumping of both plume and Indian Ocean-type mantle material by the L
ouisville hotspot. The Heezen transform forms a prominent tectonic and
mantle domain boundary that prohibits the Louisville-and Indian Ocean
-type mantle from flowing towards and contaminating the depleted Pacif
ic-type source in the northeast. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.