Origin of continental components in Indian Ocean basalts: Evidence from Elan Bank (Kerguelen Plateau, ODP Leg 183, Site 1137)
- Dominique Weis*1,
- Stephanie Ingle*1,
- Dimitri Damasceno*1,
- Frederick A. Frey*2,
- Kirsten Nicolaysen*2,
- Jane Barling*3 and
- Leg 183 Shipboard Scientific Party
- 1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 160/02, Avenue F.D. Roosevelt, 50, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
- 2Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA
- 3Earth and Environmental Sciences, Hutchison Hall 227, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA
Abstract
Basalts forming the floor of the Indian Ocean are geochemically distinct from those of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These differences have been attributed to a deeply recycled continental component or to widespread dispersion of plume-type mantle within the Indian Ocean asthenosphere. The discovery of Proterozoic continental crustal rocks within the uppermost basaltic basement of Elan Bank, part of the Kerguelen Plateau, shows instead that direct shallow-level contamination of basaltic magmas by isolated continental crust fragments may have produced the anomalous isotopic ratios of some Indian Ocean basalts.
Footnotes
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↵*dweisulb.ac.be.
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†M. Antretter, N. Arndt, F. Boehm, M. Borre, M. Coffin, H. Coxall, J. Damuth, H. Delius, R. Duncan, H. Inokuchi, L. Keszthelyi, J. Mahoney, L. Moore, R.D. Müller, C. Neal, M. Pringle, D. Reusch, P. Saccocia, D. Teagle, V. Wahnert, P. Wallace, S. Wise, X. Zhao.
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- Accepted November 5, 2000.
- Received June 16, 2000.
- Revision received November 3, 2000.
- Geological Society of America
