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Strontium and Neodymium Isotopic Signatures in Basalt Glasses of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 12°–31° N

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Abstract

This paper presents the new geochemical isotope (Sr–Nd system, H2O, Cl) data obtained for basalt glasses of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) sampled from six areas of the MAR axial zone between 31° and 12° N. The data are consistent with the existing ideas about large-scale geochemical segmentation of the MAR. It is shown that samples from predominantly serpentinite segments have a narrower range of variations of strontium isotopic composition (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7027–0.7032) in comparison with samples collected from the areas where the crustal section is dominated by basalts (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7024–0.7041). The variation ranges of the neodymium isotopic composition in these two groups of samples are almost identical (εNd = +4.9 to +10.9 and +5.9 to +11.6 in serpentinite and basalt segments, respectively), although, in general, serpentinite segments have a slightly more enriched composition. The wide variations of the neodymium isotopic composition and increased contents of Cl, H2O, and U, as well as increased K2O/TiO2 and La/Sm ratios, in samples from serpentinites can most probably be related to the participation of different geochemically heterogeneous sources in the magmatism of the MAR axial zone. The influence of enriched plume-type matter cannot be excluded in some segments. The isotopic composition of noble gases may shed light on the subject.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank the reviewers S.G. Skublov and K.N. Shatagin for valuable corrections and comments. The authors are grateful to Y.A. Kostitsyn for advice and suggestions that allowed the text and figures to be considerably improved and to scientific editor A.V. Chugaev for handling the manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by Russian Science Foundation, grant no. 22-27-00815.

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  1. Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    A. R. Tskhovrebova, V. V. Shabykova, S. A. Silantyev & A. I. Buikin

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  1. A. R. Tskhovrebova
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Translated by M. Hannibal

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Tskhovrebova, A.R., Shabykova, V.V., Silantyev, S.A. et al. Strontium and Neodymium Isotopic Signatures in Basalt Glasses of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 12°–31° N. Geochem. Int. 61, 1241–1252 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016702923120054

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