Secular variation of Nd and Pb-isotopes in ferromanganese crusts from the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans

• Published in: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
• Main Authors: O’Nions, R.K., Frank, Martin, von Blanckenburg, F., Ling, H.-F.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 1998
• Subjects: Burton; Indian; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/120/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/120/1/1-s2.0-S0012821X97002070-main.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(97)00207-0

Two ferromanganese crusts from the Indian Ocean and one from the Atlantic Ocean have been analysed for 10Be/9Be, 143Nd/144Nd and 208,207,206Pb/204Pb ratios as a function of depth beneath their growth surfaces. 10Be/9Be ratios provide growth rate estimates for these crusts between 1.55 and 2.82 mm Ma−1 and further suggest that 87Sr/86Sr in crusts do not in any case examined so far provide reliable estimates for growth rates. A crust ALV-539 from 35°N in the western N. Atlantic has ϵNd and Pb-isotope variations indistinguishable from crust BM-1969.05 from 39°N in the N. Atlantic [K.W. Burton, H.-F. Ling, R.K. O'Nions, Closure of the central American isthmus and its impact on North Atlantic deepwater circulation, Nature (London) 386 (1997) 382–385] when 10Be/10Be ratios are used to estimate growth rates. Both crusts provide evidence for a marked change in deepwater composition in the western N. Atlantic with a reduction in ϵNd and an increase in 206Pb/204Pb from ∼8 Ma ago towards the present day. The two crusts from the Indian Ocean show comparatively small variations in ϵNd between −8.0 and −7.0 over the last 20 Ma and do not show the large shift in ϵNd seen in the Atlantic crusts. Comparison of ϵNd in the crusts analysed here with those published previously [H.-F. Ling, K.W. Burton, R.K. O'Nions, B.S. Kamber, F. von Blanckenburg, A.J. Gibb, J.R. Hein, Evolution of Nd and Pb isotopes in central Pacific seawater from ferromanganese crusts, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 146 (1997) 1–12; K.W. Burton, H-F. Ling, R.K. O'Nions, Closure of the central American isthmus and its impact on North Atlantic deepwater circulation, Nature (London) 386 (1997) 382–385] shows that provinciality in the present-day ϵNd structure of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans has been maintained over ∼20 Ma or more despite the palaeogeographic changes that have occurred within this period. These include the closure of the Panama gateway and the uplift of the Himalayas. Superimposed on this broad inter-ocean structure are changes in ϵNd of the ...