On the interpretation of the oceanic variations in87Sr/86Sr as recorded in marine limestones

Abstract

The present published inventory of fluvial Sr and 87Sr/86Sr data, combined with new information from the big rivers of Eastern Siberia (a combined total of ∼ 1,000 measurements), is used to investigate the probable origin of the large rise in the marine isotopic ratio, recorded in limestones, over the last ∼ 20 million years. With the exception of the data from the Ganga-Brahmaputra all measurements fall on what is proposed to be called the "Wickman trend", essentially a mixing line between the limestone sink for Sr, with the integrated marine ratio, and the flux from the weathering of average continental crust. However, time-variations along this trend, i.e. changes in relative weathering intensity, cannot explain the observations from limestones. They can only be caused by very high and radiogenic fluxes of Sr as are occurring from the present Himalayan orogeny, lying far above the Wickman trend and caused by metamorphic remobilization of radiogenic Sr during underthrusting and subsequent unroofing associated with the collision of India with Eurasia. In general the variations in the ratio are therefore caused by specific tectonic events, not by general climatic variations in the intensity of aluminosilicate weathering. © Printed in India.