Elemental mobility during zeolite facies metamorphism of the Tertiary basalts of eastern Iceland

Abstract

Major and trace element analyses are reported for 70 lavas from the Tertiary succession of eastern Iceland. The low grade regional metamorphism responsible for the zeolite zones appears to have caused significant mobilization of some elements, particularly Si, Mg, K, Rb, Sr and light rare earth elements (LREE). In contrast, values for Ti, P, Zr, Y, Nb, Ta, Hf and some of the rare earth elements show a high degree of correlation and this is taken to imply that these elements have been relatively unaffected by metasomatic transport. The demonstrated mobility of Sr and LREE suggest that Sr isotopic and rare earth data obtained from the eastern Iceland lavas must be interpreted with caution.