Abstract
I HAVE suggested1 that mantle-ambient rare gases are to be found in deep-sea basalts, trapped there by the same mechanism responsible for trapping excess 40Ar. A previous search in such basalts dredged from an East Pacific seamount revealed gases similar to atmospheric in both elemental and isotopic ratios2. I report here analyses of three Atlantic Ocean basalts whose elemental rare gas ratios are distinctly different from atmospheric, and which approximate primordial rare gases as seen in meteorites and the lunar surface.
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References
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Bonatti, E., and Fisher, D. E., Earth planet. Sci. Lett., 11, 307 (1971).
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FISHER, D. Primordial Rare Gases in the Deep Earth. Nature 244, 344–345 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1038/244344a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/244344a0
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