RESUMEN
An olivine nephelinite from the lower part of a thick alkalic ultrabasic and mafic sequence of volcanic rocks of the northeastern part of the Siberian flood basalt province (SFBP) yielded a (40)Ar/(39)Ar plateau age of 253.3 +/- 2.6 million years, distinctly older than the main tholeiitic pulse of the SFBP at 250.0 million years. Olivine phenocrysts of this rock showed (3)He/(4)He ratios up to 12.7 times the atmospheric ratio; these values suggest a lower mantle plume origin. The neodymium and strontium isotopes, rare earth element concentration patterns, and cerium/lead ratios of the associated rocks were also consistent with their derivation from a near-chondritic, primitive plume. Geochemical data from the 250-million-year-old volcanic rocks higher up in the sequence indicate interaction of this high-(3)He SFBP plume with a suboceanic-type upper mantle beneath Siberia.
RESUMEN
Paleomagnetic and (40)Ar/(39)Ar analyses from the Lathrop Wells volcanic center, Nevada, indicate that two eruptive events have occurred there. The ages (136 +/- 8 and 141 +/- 9 thousand years ago) for these two events are analytically indistinguishable. The small angular difference (4.7 degrees ) between the paleomagnetic directions from these two events suggests they differ in age by only about 100 years. These ages are consistent with the chronology of the surficial geological units in the Yucca Mountain area. These results contradict earlier interpretations of the cinder-cone geomorphology and soil-profile data that suggest that at least five temporally discrete eruptive events occurred at Lathrop Wells approximately 20,000 years ago.
RESUMEN
The first accelerator radiocarbon dates of rock varnishes are reported along with potassium/argon ages of lava flows and conventional radiocarbon dates of pluvial lake shorelines, in an empirical calibration of rock varnish K(+) + Ca(2+)/Ti(4+) ratios with age in the Mojave Desert, eastern California. This calibration was used to determine the cation-ratio dates of 167 artifacts. Although cation-ratio dating is an experimental method, some dates suggest human occupation of the Mojave Desert in the late Pleistocene.