Geochemistry and petrology of dredged basalts from the Bouvet triple junction,South Atlantic

Basalts dredged from the Bouvet triple junction (South Atlantic), from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge near the triple junction, and from a spreading center east of Bouvet Island differ from normal mid-ocean ridge tholeiites by having higher concentrations of K and other large-ion-lithophile elements, higher ${}^{87}\text{Sr}\text{:}{}^{86}\text{Sr}$ ratios, and rare earth element distributions which show relative enrichment in the lighter rare earths. The basalts are more fractionated than typical oceanic tholeiites, however, fractional crystallization does not fully account for their chemical characteristics, and it appears that they were derived from special source materials, contaminated perhaps by a mantle plume rising beneath Bouvet Island.