Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Smalley, P. C. Articles by Bessa, J. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Seawater Sr isotope variations through time: A procedure for constructing a reference curve to date and correlate marine sedimentary rocks

¹ British Petroleum, Research and Engineering Centre, Chertsey Road, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex TW16 7LN, United Kingdom
² Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, 1006 C. C. Little, Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1063
³ Department of Geology, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada

A new curve of seawater ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr variation through the past 450 m.y. enables dating and correlation of marine sedimentary rocks with quantifiable uncertainties. We discuss the method by which this curve was constructed. Strictly standardized ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios and biostrat igraphic data for 1300 ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr analyses of marine minerals were input into a data base. Objective criteria were used to assign each data point a reliability score. These scores were used as initial weights in a robust nonparametric regression (LOWESS) to obtain a curve of seawater ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr variation with rigorous 95% confidence intervals for prediction of age uncertainty. Precise dating and stratigraphic correlation are feasible for much of the Phanerozoic. The main problem with future Sr isotope stratigraphy is likely to be sample quality; we discuss guidelines for sample selection.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				H. G. Machel Concepts and models of dolomitization: a critical reappraisal Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2004; 235(1): 7 - 63. [Abstract] [PDF]

				R. D. Walshaw and J. F. Menuge Dating of crustal fluid flow by the Rb-Sr isotopic analysis of sphalerite: a review Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 1998; 144(1): 137 - 143. [Abstract] [PDF]