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Rubidium-Strontium Geochronologic Systematics in Igneous Contact Zones: Analog for 90-Sr and 137-Cs Behavior in the Near Field

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

D. G. Brookins*
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131
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Abstract

The behavior of 90-Sr and 137-Cs in the near field of a HLW package can be investigated by use of Rb-Sr geochronologic information from igneous contact zones. The chemical behavior of 90-Sr is identical to other Sr isotopes, and Cs behavior is very similar to that of Rb. During igneous intrusion, the effect of heat from the igneous rock, coupled with fluid action, is to perturb Rb-Sr systematics of minerals in the intruded rock. Rb-Sr redistribution diagrams are useful not only for indirectly dating the time of intrusion, but also for determining the extent of closed versus open system conditions in the contact zones. Once open or closed system behavior is determined, the Rb-Sr systematics can be evaluated in terms of diffusion, fluid-induced metasomatism, selective dissolution, other, and coupled processes. All these can be discussed in terms of time-temperaturefluid compositional parameters. Rb migration is controlled predominantly by fluid flow, while diffusion models better explain some Sr isotopic behavior Cs, from geochemical arguments, should be less mobile than Rb. In most cases, even when temperature of the intrusive is 800–1200°C the cooling period on the order of 104 – 105 years, and in a highly convective system, Sr and Rb mobility is on the order of only microns to meters.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1985

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