Product catalogue
A strontium isoscape of northern Australia (Article)
<div>Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are useful to trace processes in the Earth sciences as well as in forensic, archaeological, palaeontological, and ecological sciences. As very few large-scale Sr isoscapes exist in Australia, we have identified an opportunity to determine 87Sr/86Sr ratios on archived fluvial sediment samples from the low-density National Geochemical Survey of Australia (www.ga.gov.au/ngsa; last access: 15 December 2022). The present study targeted the northern parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, north of 21.5 °S. The samples were taken mostly from a depth of ~60-80 cm in floodplain deposits at or near the outlet of large catchments (drainage basins). A coarse (< 2 mm) grain-size fraction was air-dried, sieved, milled then digested (hydrofluoric acid + nitric acid followed by aqua regia) to release <em>total</em> Sr. The Sr was then separated by chromatography and the 87Sr/86Sr ratio determined by multicollector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Results demonstrate a wide range of Sr isotopic values (0.7048 to 1.0330) over the survey area, reflecting a large diversity of source rock lithologies, geological processes and bedrock ages. Spatial distribution of 87Sr/86Sr shows coherent (multi-point anomalies and smooth gradients), large-scale (> 100 km) patterns that appear to be broadly consistent with surface geology, regolith/soil type, and/or nearby outcropping bedrock. For instance, the extensive black clay soils of the Barkly Tableland define a > 500 km-long northwest-southeast-trending unradiogenic anomaly (87Sr/86Sr < 0.7182). Where sedimentary carbonate or mafic/ultramafic igneous rocks dominate, low to moderate 87Sr/86Sr values are generally recorded (medians of 0.7387 and 0.7422, respectively). In proximity to the outcropping Proterozoic metamorphic basement of the Tennant, McArthur, Murphy and Mount Isa geological regions, conversely, radiogenic 87Sr/86Sr values (> 0.7655) are observed. A potential correlation between mineralisation and elevated 87Sr/86Sr values in these regions needs to be investigated in greater detail. Our results to-date indicate that incorporating soil/regolith Sr isotopes in regional, exploratory geoscience investigations can help identify basement rock types under (shallow) cover, constrain surface processes (e.g. weathering, dispersion), and, potentially, recognise components of mineral systems. Furthermore, the resulting Sr isoscape and future models derived therefrom can also be utilised in forensic, archaeological, paleontological and ecological studies that aim to investigate, e.g., past and modern animal (including humans) dietary habits and migrations. The new spatial Sr isotope dataset for the northern Australia region is publicly available (de Caritat et al., 2022a; https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147473; last access: 15 December 2022).</div>
<b>Citation:</b>
de Caritat, P., Dosseto, A., and Dux, F.: A strontium isoscape of northern Australia, <i>Earth Syst. Sci. Data</i>, 15, 1655–1673, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1655-2023, <b>2023</b>.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2022-12-17T20:00:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2023-05-26T00:56:31
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147598
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author de Caritat, P.
Internal Contact Author Dosseto, A.
External Contact Author Dux, F.
External Contact Publisher Copernicus Publications
External Contact
- Name
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Earth System Science Data (ESSD)
- Issue identification
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Volume 15, Issue 4, 2023
- Page
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1655 - 1673
- Purpose
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Publish a peer-reviewed article to support Sr isotope data release for northern Australia (eCat 147473, https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147473) and complement earlier data release for inland southeastern Australia (eCat 146397, https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/146397)
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
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Data Store directory containing the digital product files
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- Project
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EFTF – Exploring for the Future
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- Project
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Australia’s Resources Framework
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- Keywords
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87Sr/86Sr
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- Keywords
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strontium isotopes
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- Keywords
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regolith
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- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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Exploration geochemistry
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Soil chemistry and soil carbon sequestration (excl. carbon sequestration science)
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Isotope geochemistry
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
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4.0
- Addressee
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details User Any
- Use constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
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© Author(s) 2023
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Classification system
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Australian Government Security Classification System
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was derived from
- Title
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A strontium isoscape of inland southeastern Australia
- Citation identifier
- 146397
- Citation identifier
- 004c6972-4d53-4b8f-ba35-2d2469d644e9
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was derived from
- Title
-
National Geochemical Survey of Australia: The Geochemical Atlas of Australia
- Citation identifier
- 71973
- Citation identifier
- a4a1ac2e-0a2c-653b-e044-00144fdd4fa6
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was derived from
- Title
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Northern Australia Geochemical Survey: Data Release 2 – Total (coarse fraction), Aqua Regia (coarse and fine fraction), and Fire Assay (coarse and fine fraction) element contents
- Citation identifier
- 126296
- Citation identifier
- 631937cb-d57f-45b1-9e39-a79961db391e
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice facsimile
- OnLine resource
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Link to Journal
Link to Journal
- Distribution format
-
Resource lineage
- Statement
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<div>National Geochemical Survey of Australia (doi: 10.11636/Record.2011.020)</div><div>Northern Australia Geochemical Survey (doi: 10.11636/Record.2019.002) </div>
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/b90c18d5-5686-490c-96ea-df83eb2a2882
- Title
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GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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Journal Article / Conference Paper
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/147598
- Date info (Creation)
- 2023-05-26T00:05:33
- Date info (Revision)
- 2023-05-26T00:05:33
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
-
Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551