January 1974
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9 Reads
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28 Citations
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology
Initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios have been plotted against time of formation for various rock-types in the Schwarzwald and Vosges basement areas. These data exhibit strong positive correlations between the two variables. The Schwarzwald data define two distinct trend lines on the diagram, for the time span 500 to 250 Ma ago. The first comprises the data from orthogneisses, diatexites and pre-tectonic granites and documents the Sr isotope evolution in the crust underlying the Sehwarzwald. This region of the crust had a 87Rb/86Sr ratio of about 1. The other is delineated by data points from the post-tectonic plutons. These form a band corresponding to the development of closed systems with 87Rb/86Sr ratios of between 10 and 20 as indicated by the slope of the band. The second trend is interpreted as resulting from the formation of large, stable, deep-seated magma chambers formed by segregation of anatectic melts during a phase of tectonism 330Ma ago. The high 87Rb/86Sr ratios of these magmas arose by fractional crystallization, in response to tectonic decompression, during the coalescence of the presumedly water-saturated melts. Data for rocks from the Vosges, taken from the literature, form a single development line. Its slope corresponds to a 87Rb/86Sr ratio of about 5 and the line is analogous to the second trend line defined by the Schwarzwald data. The differences in the Rb/Sr systematics between the two areas can be explained as resulting from the deeper level of erosion in the Vosges. An important implication for Rb/Sr studies is that co-magmatic rocks can have very different initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios so that discrepancies in this ratio between rock-types cannot be used to divide plutons into genetic suites. On the other hand essential information is contained in the Rb/Sr systematics of orogenic magmatic rocks, such as the Variscan plutons in the Schwarzwald, that cannot be obtained from geochemical and petrological studies alone.