In a bold move the British Antarctic Survey has published the naturally fragmentary results of their ongoing geological mapping and research programme in the Antarctic Peninsula and offshore islands, plus South Georgia. The later is classified as a United Kingdom overseas territory, along with the volcanically active South Sandwich Islands just north of 60 degrees south. Beyond this latitude to the South Pole all territorial claims have been frozen by the Antarctic treaty, which built upon the International Geophysical Year of 1957 and came into force in 1961. Since then this monumental achievement, developed during the height of the cold war, has succeeded in keeping Antarctica demilitarized, including banning the disposal of nuclear waste, and untainted by mineral exploration. In 1998 this treaty was renewed for a further fifty years and extended to cover the impact of tourism. Although geological research had been conducted since the pioneering days of Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen, the original 1908 territorial claim was backed up by a continuing presence since 1943, and the Falklands Islands Dependencies Survey was renamed the British Antarctic Survey in 1962 to chime with the spirit of purely scientific research entailed by this treaty which has now expanded to a membership of nearly fifty nations. 相似文献
This paper describes a technique, which allows precise and accurate Sr isotope measurement combined with trace element analysis of individual melt inclusions, of sample sizes 1 ng of Sr. The technique involves sampling by micro-milling, chemical dissolution, micro Sr column chemistry, TIMS, and ICPMS analyses. A 10% aliquot of each sample solution is used for trace element analysis by double focusing magnetic sector field ICPMS, while Sr is chemically separated from the remaining 90% and used for 87Sr/86Sr determinations by TIMS.During the development of the technique outlined above, we documented in detail the potential sources of blank contributions and their magnitude. The average size and Sr isotope composition of our laboratory total procedural blank during this study was 5.4 pg ± 0.3 pg Sr (n = 21) with an 87Sr/86Sr of 0.7111 ± 0.0002 (2SE, n = 3). The total procedural Rb blank was 1.9 ± 0.7 pg (n = 21). The total procedural blank was found to have minimal effect (< 150 ppm shift) on the 87Sr/86Sr of sample material containing down to 250 pg Sr. Applying a blank correction allows ‘in house’ standards of this size to be corrected back to within 175 ppm of their accepted values. By applying blank corrections we can confidently measure the Sr isotope composition on sample sizes down to 25 pg Sr to an accuracy better than 400 ppm.The utility of the technique is illustrated by application to a suite of melt inclusions from NW Iceland and their host olivines. It is shown that the effect of a small amount of entrainment of the host olivine during sampling of 50 μm melt inclusions has a negligible effect on the measured Sr isotope and trace element composition. Furthermore, where melt inclusions are < 50 μm it is possible to obtain Sr isotope and trace element data on multiple melt inclusions hosted in a single olivine. This provides similar information to that of the single melt inclusions. 相似文献
The Central Mackenzie Valley (CMV) area of Northwest Territories is underlain by Precambrian basement belonging to the North American Craton. The potential of this area to host kimberlitic diamond deposits is relatively high judging from the seismologically-defined lithospheric thickness, age of basement rocks (2.2–1.7 Ga) and presence of kimberlite indicator minerals (KIMs) in Quaternary sediments. This study presents data for a large collection of KIMs recovered from stream sediments and till samples from two study areas in the CMV, the Horn Plateau and Trout Lake. In the processed samples, peridotitic garnets dominate the KIM grain count for both regions (> 25% each) while eclogitic garnet is almost absent in both regions (< 1% each). KIM chemistry for the Horn Plateau indicates significant diamond potential, with a strong similarity to KIM systematics from the Central and Western Slave Craton. The most significant issue to resolve in assessing the local diamond potential is the degree to which KIM chemistry reflects local and/or distal kimberlite bodies. Radiogenic isotope analysis of detrital kimberlite-related CMV ilmenite and rutile grains requires at least two broad age groups for eroded source kimberlites. Statistical analysis of the data suggests that it is probable that some of these KIMs were derived from primary and/or secondary sources within the CMV area, while others may have been transported to the area from the east-northeast by Pleistocene glacial and/or glaciofluvial systems. At this stage, KIM chemistry does not allow the exact location of the kimberlitic source(s) to be constrained.