Sr Isotopic Compositions of Mafic Volcanic Rocks, Western United States
Kent RatajeskPublished June 30, 2006.
Basaltic cinder cone in the Mojave Desert.
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Description
In this exercise, students use whole-rock Sr isotopic compositions of volcanic rocks in the western United States to explore variability in mantle sources. The isotopic data are obtained from the North American Volcanic and Intrusive Database (NAVDAT) and analyzed using an interactive plotting and mapping tools at the NAVDAT website.
This exercise is one of several examples featured in the Geoscience Education in the New Cyberinfrastructure module at SERC. Each example is designed to give instructors and students direct practice for using cyberinformatic databases and tools to analyze Earth science data. Students should begin on the Introduction page.