Robust 24 ± 6 ka Ar/Ar age of a low-potassium tholeiitic basalt in the Lassen region of NE California

⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages on the Hat Creek Basalt (HCB) and stratigraphically related lava flows show that latest Pleistocene tholeiitic basalt with very low K₂O can be dated reliably. The HCB underlies ∼ 15 ka glacial gravel and overlies four andesite and basaltic andesite lava flows that yield ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages of 38 ± 7 ka (Cinder Butte; 1.65% K₂O), 46 ± 7 ka (Sugarloaf Peak; 1.85% K₂O), 67 ± 4 ka (Little Potato Butte; 1.42% K₂O) and 77 ± 11 ka (Potato Butte; 1.62% K₂O). Given these firm age brackets, we then dated the HCB directly. One sample (0.19% K₂O) clearly failed the criteria for plateau-age interpretation, but the inverse isochron age of 26 ± 6 ka is seductively appealing. A second sample (0.17% K₂O) yielded concordant plateau, integrated (total fusion), and inverse isochron ages of 26 ± 18, 30 ± 20 and 24 ± 6 ka, all within the time bracket determined by stratigraphic relations; the inverse isochron age of 24 ± 6 ka is preferred. As with all isotopically determined ages, confidence in the results is significantly enhanced when additional constraints imposed by other isotopic ages within a stratigraphic context are taken into account.     

A reappraisal of the high-Ti and low-Ti classification of basalts and petrogenetic linkage between basalts and mafic–ultramafic intrusions in the Emeishan Large Igneous Province, SW China

Based on published data, we reappraise the classification of high-Ti and low-Ti basalt from the Emeishan large igneous province (ELIP) and the correlations between basalts and mafic–ultramafic intrusions. Because of the lack of clear spatial and temporal variations of different types of basalts, we suggest that the basalts in the ELIP cannot be classified into high-Ti and low-Ti groups, by TiO₂ contents and/or Ti/Y ratios. The distinctive characteristics of these high-Ti and low-Ti lavas probably result largely from the different fractionating assemblages. Whether or not fractional crystallization of the Fe–Ti oxides occurred probably is the key factor that controls the Ti abundances and Ti/Y ratios in the residual melts, e.g., lavas, although the nature of the mantle sources, variable degrees of partial melting of mantle and crustal contamination also influence the geochemical signatures of the lavas. Therefore, neither Ti abundance nor Ti/Y ratios in basalts can reflect the nature of their mantle source. Moreover, the different types of mafic–ultramafic intrusions in the ELIP cannot simply be attributed to be genetically related special types of basalts, either high-Ti or low-Ti basalts. It is likely that they are merely the cumulus phases, i.e. chamber or conduit of the basaltic lavas. Hence, caution should be exercised in the use of high-Ti or low-Ti basalts as prospecting vectors for ore deposits in the region. Potential implications are proposed that both the Fe–V–Ti oxide and Cu–Ni–(PGE) sulfide mineralization in the ELIP intrusions is largely due to the variable differentiation and crustal contamination during magmatic processes.     

西昆仑库地北依莎克群玄武岩锆石U-Pb年龄、地球化学特征及构造意义

西昆仑山分为北昆仑古生代复合沟弧带和南昆仑地块,依莎克群的形成时代和构造归属一直存在争议,库地蛇绿岩的形成时代亦无定论。本文运用电子探针微区成分分析和锆石U-Pb测年方法,对库地北西奴山依莎克群底部玄武岩中锆石进行了分析。获得依莎克群玄武岩中锆石LA-ICP-MS U-Pb年龄为519.5±1.2Ma,说明依莎克群玄武岩形成时代为中寒武世。与库地蛇绿岩构造环境和形成时代对比表明依莎克群玄武岩是库地蛇绿岩的组成部分,是原特提斯洋俯冲消减作用的产物。综合前人的年代学资料和本文成果表明库地蛇绿岩形成时代为中寒武世—晚寒武世。     

Building a 3-D model of a flood basalt: an example from the Etendeka, NW Namibia

Flood basalts represent large outpourings of lavas which often cover, and interact with, sedimentary basins. For this reason areas with significant flood basalt cover are often targets for hydrocarbon exploration. Problems exist, however, when trying to image sediments and structures in offshore regions covered by basalts. Here we present preliminary 3-D models of the Etendeka flood basalt province from NW Namibia, which can act as an aid in understanding the internal and external architecture of the flood basalt cover. Satellite images, digital elevation models, measured geological logs, sections and maps, are used to create the geological model. Models are presented in 2 parts; 1) models created using topography with images such as Land Sat and geological maps draped over them, and 2) a 3-D model of key lava and sediment surfaces in the basin as defined by measured geological sections. Initial results show a palaeo-volcanic feature early in the flood basalt history which is onlapped by later Iavas. The modelling also allows a simple correction for post emplacement subsidence by assuming an original sub horizontal position for the first basin wide silicic flow unit.     

Lunar geochemistry as told by lunar meteorites

About 36 lunar meteorites have been found in cold and hot deserts since the first one was found in 1979 in Antarctica. All are random samples ejected from unknown locations on the Moon by meteoroid impacts. Lithologically and compositionally there are three extreme types: (1) brecciated anorthosites with high Al₂O₃ (26–31%), low FeO (3–6%), and low incompatible elements (e.g., <1 μg/g Th), (2) basalts and brecciated basalts with high FeO (18–22%), moderately low Al₂O₃ (8–10%) and incompatible elements (0.4–2.1 μg/g Th), and (3) an impact-melt breccia of noritic composition (16% Al₂O₃, 11% FeO) with very high concentrations of incompatible elements (33 μg/g Th), a lithology that is identified as KREEP on the basis of its similarity to Apollo samples of that designation. Several meteorites are polymict breccias of intermediate composition because they contain both anorthosite and basalt. Despite the large range in compositions, a variety of compositional parameters together distinguish lunar meteorites from terrestrial materials. Compositional and petrographic data for lunar meteorites, when combined with mineralogical and compositional data obtained from orbiting spacecraft in the 1990s, suggest that Apollo samples identified with the magnesian (Mg-rich) suite of nonmare rocks (norite, troctolite, dunite, alkali anorthosite, and KREEP) are all products of a small, geochemically anomalous (noritic, high Th) region of crust known as the Procellarum KREEP Terrane and are not, as generally assumed, indigenous to the vast expanse of typical feldspathic crust known as the Feldspathic Highlands Terrane. Magnesian-suite rocks such as those of the Apollo collection do not occur as clasts in the feldspathic lunar meteorites. The misconception is a consequence of four historical factors: (1) the Moon has long been viewed as simply bimodal in geology, mare or highlands, (2) one of the last, large basin-forming bolides impacted in the Procellarum KREEP Terrane, dispersing Th-rich material, (3) although it was not known at the time, the Apollo missions all landed in or near the anomalous Procellarum KREEP Terrane and collected many Th-rich samples formed therein, and (4) the Apollo samples were interpreted and models for lunar crust formation developed without recognition of the anomaly because global data provided by orbiting missions and lunar meteorites were obtained only years later.     

An Intelligent Method for Geochemical Discrimination of Tectonic Settings of Basalt Based on Olivine Composition: GWO-SVM Method and its VerificationEI北大核心CSCD

Geochemical discrimination of tectonic settings of basalts has been an important research direction of geochemistry for decades. Olivine is one of the earliest crystallized minerals of basaltic magma, which records a lot of hidden information of the formation and evolution of the magma. Therefore, basic elements in olivine are used to discriminate three tectonic settings, including the mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB), ocean island basalt (OIB) and island arc basalt (IAB). However, it is still difficult to accurately discriminate the tectonic settings by using these diagrams. The machine learning algorithm is introduced to solve the aforementioned problem. The classification performance of the machine learning discrimination method largely depends on the rationality of parameter determination. To this end, the paper proposes a coupling intelligent method for geochemical discrimination of tectonic settings using olivine composition of the basalts based on the grey wolf optimizer (GWO)-optimized support vector machine (SVM), or GWO-SVM for short. GWO is used to seek the optimal parameter combination of SVM to form the optimal mapping relationship between basic elements in olivine and basalt tectonic settings, so as to realize the accurate discrimination of MORB, OIB and IAB. In addition, according to the published geochemical data of basalt samples, the discrimination performance of GWO-SVM is evaluated by means of the simulation experiment, hold-out validation and k-fold cross-validation. The evaluation results are represented by the confusion matrix and its derived evaluation indicators. The results show that GWO-SVM can discriminate the tectonic settings of the basalts based on olivine compositions with overall classification accuracy of up to 85%. Thus, in comparison with the traditional discrimination diagram method, the machine learning discrimination method based on multi-algorithm fusion can significantly improve the discrimination accuracy of basalt tectonic settings. © 2020, Science Press. All right reserved.     

大同市万泉河流域玄武岩地下水开发研究

玄武岩为一孔隙、裂隙双重介质 ,在特殊的条件下 ,为良好的含水层。大同市万泉河流域玄武岩分布广泛 ,其玄武岩地下水具有良好的开发前景。根据该区玄武岩分布埋藏条件、地下水赋存规律 ,探讨了开发的可能性 ,并用解析法进行了水资源评价。     

辽西阜新中生代玄武岩中深源捕虏体的岩石学和矿物化学研究

辽西阜新中生代碱性玄武岩的Ｋ－Ａｒ同位素年龄为８４．７６±１．６７Ｍａ, 其中含有丰富的深源岩石捕虏体, 包括角闪尖晶二辉橄榄岩、尖晶石二辉橄榄岩、含长角闪二辉石岩、二辉麻粒岩和辉石斜长片麻岩等。与新生代玄武岩中的同类捕虏体相比, 橄榄岩类捕虏体中橄榄石的成分相似 （Ｆｏ＝ ８６～９１）, 透辉石具有富Ａｌ、贫Ｃｒ 和Ｃａ 的特点, 尖晶石的成分以ＭｇＡｌ２ Ｏ４ 为主, 有的橄榄岩捕虏体中含少量韭闪石。二辉麻粒岩捕虏体中的斜方辉石为紫苏辉石, 单斜辉石为普通辉石, 斜长石属于更长石。橄榄岩类捕虏体的平衡温度为１０１２．６℃～１２７２．１℃; 压力为１．８２５～２．９３５ＧＰａ, 二辉麻粒岩和片麻岩的平衡温度为８９２℃～１１５７℃。该类深源岩石捕虏体的发现对中国东部中生代上地幔和下地壳的研究均具有重要意义。     

中国东北地区新生代火山幕

中国东北地区分布着约690个火山锥和火山口,50000km~2的玄武岩和粗面岩。自白垩纪晚期到现代可分为10个火山幕,即大屯幕(86—61Ma)、双辽幕(49—39Ma)、下辽河幕(37—27Ma)、甑峰山幕(23—19Ma)、奶头山幕(16—13Ma)、老爷岭幕(11—7Ma)、军舰山幕(4.5—2.0Ma)、龙岗幕(1.5—0.8Ma),白头山幕(0.58—0.06Ma)和五大连池幕(近10000年以来)。火山活动的高潮在中新世和第四纪。早期火山活动发生在松辽地堑内部,随着时间的推移,火山活动逐渐向两侧呈递叠式发展,在大陆边缘一例表现尤为明显。     

Applicability of large-ion lithophile and high field strength element basalt discrimination diagrams

Basalt discriminant diagrams have been used to identify the tectonic setting of basaltic magmatism since the 1970s and have played an important role in reconstructing paleotectonic environments. However, the significant increase in the availability of geochemical data has led to a reassessment of these diagrams, suggesting that some of the tectonic settings indicated by these diagrams are not accurate. Here, we use a database of global ocean island basalt (OIB), mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB), and island arc basalt (IAB) geochemistry to propose a series of new tectonic discriminant diagrams based on the ratios of large-ion lithophile elements (LILEs) to high field strength elements (HFSEs). These new diagrams indicate that the LILE can be used to differentiate OIB, MORB, and IAB samples, meaning that LILE/HFSE ratios can discriminate between these basalts that form in different tectonic settings. Our new diagrams can correctly assign samples to OIB, MORB, and IAB categories more than 85% of the time, with the discrimination between OIB and MORB having an accuracy of slightly less than 85%.