A Rhenium-Osmium Study of Alkaline Basalts from Vesteris Seamount and the Jan Mayen area in the North Atlantic

University Of Maryland, College Park, College Park MD

Investigators

Abstract

Award is for Os isotopic analysis of Quaternary to Recent alkaline asalt samples from Vesteris Seamount, a 3000m high, solitary volcano offshore of northeastern Greenland in the North Atlantic Ocean. These samples (together with other alkaline asalt samples from the North Atlantic), which include well-characterized basanites of up to 14% MgO, have been shown to contain measrable 187 Os/188 Os, rare amongst oceanic lavas which are not directly related to mantle plumes. This study will study small-scale heterogeneities in the oceanic upper mantle, and would enhance our understanding of the Os composition of the depleted mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) mantle source.