Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : Several nuclides of the ;238;U (;234;U, ;230;Th, ;226;Ra, ;210;Pb) and ;235;U (;231;Pa, ;227;Ac) decay series have been measured through gamma spectrometry in the U-bearing episyenites of the Bernardan mine (northwest Massif Central, France), in order to study recent mobilizations in the U-deposit and their time-scales. (;230;Th/;238;U) and (;231;Pa/;235;U) ratios show that U has been little affected during the last 350 ky, especially in the U-rich samples. In contrast, ;226;Ra was subjected to a general redistribution, with a clear tendency for Ra to be lost from the U-rich samples and added to U-poor samples. The highest Ra excesses are present in low-U samples, and are related to adsorption onto iron hydroxides. Ra appears to have been redistributed within the mineralised episyenitic bodies, which seem to remain in ;226;Ra–;238;U radioactive equilibrium, a result consistent with the earlier study of Leroy [1984. Episyénitisation dans le gisement d'uranium du Bernardan (Marche): Comparaison avec des gisements similaires du Nord-Ouest du Massif Central français. Miner. Depos. 19, 26–35]. As shown by the ;226;Ra and ;210;Pb data, the Ra redistribution was very active between 8 and 0.1 ky, and this might be a consequence of the hydrological changes in groundwater circulation accompanying the Holocene climate warming.
ISSN: 0009-2541

hal-00407600
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00407600
DOI : 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2007.06.020

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag (Germany) Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
We report here U-series and trace element data for an olivine-melilitite lava flow, erupted in 1957 in the Virunga volcanic field and known as the Mugogo eruption. Petrological and geochemical data show that the Mugogo magma represents a primary mantle melt, derived from a low degree of melting of a metasomatised mantle source. It is highly enriched in very incompatible trace elements (e.g. more than 300-fold compared to primitive mantle for Th), with a distinctly lower enrichment in Rb, Ba and Sr. The high Th/U and low (230Th/232Th) ratios (4.4 and 0.750, respectively, with a (230Th/238U) ratio of 1.09) are close to the values found for the Nyamuragira basanites. But the most striking feature is the very low (226Ra/230Th) ratio of 0.48, the lowest ever measured in a mafic volcanic rock. The most probable origin of this Ra deficit is the presence of phlogopite (having a high Ra partition coefficient) in the lithospheric mantle, either as a residual phase during low-degree isobaric melting (in batch-melting or a diffusion-controlled melting models), or in a phlogopite-bearing upper mantle through which the melt migrates and equilibrates (in an equilibrium porous flow model commonly used to describe adiabatic melting). The disequilibrium pattern (230Th) > (238U) > (210Pb) ≫ (226Ra), reversed compared to the pattern observed in the Oldoinyo Lengai natrocarbonatite, suggests that a carbonatite melt might have been involved to explain the Ra deficit. We thus discuss the possibility of an early separation of a Ra-enriched carbonate melt either from the olivine-melilitite melt or from a carbonated mantle source, followed by the production of a low-degree melt of olivine-melilitite composition, but the lack of available experimental, petrological and geochemical evidences makes this process somewhat speculative at present. Further studies of recent (<5 ky) olivine-melilitites are needed to check whether the large Ra deficit is a general characteristic of this type of magma that can be used to constrain models of its formation.
ISSN: 0010-7999

hal-01174173
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01174173
DOI : 10.1007/s00410-015-1124-9