Abstract
The Tasmanian dolerites, part of the Ferrar Province of Australia and Antarctica, have some trace‐element and isotopic compositions that suggest continental contamination of mantle‐derived magmas. The debate has centred on whether the contamination occurred during intrusion into the crust, or if the mantle source itself was contaminated. The behaviour of Sr and O isotopes suggests that the mantle source had a δ18O composition of +6‰ and an initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.709, which supports the latter contention. Recently published Re–Os data likewise dismiss upper crustal contamination: Re–Os isotopic compositions of magnetite‐rich mineral separates from seven Tasmanian dolerites yield an isochron that gives the same age, within uncertainties, as other dating techniques, namely 175 ± 5 Ma. Moreover, Re–Os data from a study of Antarctic Ferrar Province samples lie on the same isochron and the data together give an age of 177.3 ± 3.5 Ma. The initial 187Os/188Os of 0.125 ± 0.033 is the calculated mantle composition at the time. These results support previous models that attribute chemical features of the Ferrar magmas to re‐enrichment of a depleted mantle source region rather than processes involving assimilation of crust by basaltic magma.
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