SIGNATURES OF THE SOURCE FOR THE EMEISHAN FLOOD BASALTS IN THE ERTAN AREA: PB ISOTOPE EVIDENCE

Abstract

The Emeishan flood basalts can be divided into high-Ti (HT) basalt (Ti/ Y>500) and low-Ti (LT) basalt (Ti/Y<500). Sr, Nd isotopic characteristics of the lavas indicate that the LT-and the HT-type magmas originated from distinct mantle sources and parental magmas. The LT-type magma was derived from a shallower lithospheric mantle, whereas the HT-type magma was derived from a deeper mantle source that may be possibly a mantle plume. However, few studies on the Emeishan flood basalts involved their Pb isotopes, especially the Ertan basalts. In this paper, the authors investigated basalt samples from the Ertan area in terms of Pb isotopes, in order to constrain the source of the Emeishan flood basalts. The ratios of 206Pb/204Pb (18.31-18.41), 207Pb/204Pb (15.55-15.56) and 208Pb/204Pb (38.81-38.94) are significantly higher than those of the depleted mantle, just lying between EM I and EM II. This indicates that the Emeishan HT basalts (in the Ertan area) are the result of mixing of EMI end-member and EMII end-member. © Science Press 2007.