Noble gases in submarine pillow volcanic glasses

Fifteen submarine glasses from the East Pacific Rise (CYAMEX), the Kyushu-Palau Ridge (DSDP Leg 59) and the Nauru Basin (DSDP Leg 61) were analysed for noble gas contents and isotopic ratios. Both the East Pacific Rise and Kyushu-Palau Ridge samples showed Ne excess relative to Ar and a monotonic decrease from Xe to Ar when compared with air noble gas abundance. This characteristic noble gas abundance pattern (type 2, classified by Ozima and Alexander) is interpreted to be due to a two-stage degassing from a noble gas reservoir with originally atmospheric abundance. In the Kyushu-Palau Ridge sample, noble gases are nearly ten times more abundant than in the East Pacific Rise samples. This may be attributed to an oceanic crust contamination in the former mantle source. There is no correlation between the He content and that of the other noble gas in the CYAMEX samples. This suggests that He was derived from a larger region, independent from the other noble gases. Except where radiogenic isotopes are involved, all other noble gas isotopic ratios were indistinguishable from air noble gas isotopic ratios. The 3He/4He in the East Pacific Rise shows a remarkably uniform ratio of (1.21 +/- 0.07)*10**-5, while the40Ar/36Ar ranges from 700 to 5600

(Table 1) Helium concentration in sediments

Two decades ago, Merrihue (1964) reported 3He/4He ratios of >10**-4 in ferromagnetic separates from a Pacific deep ocean red clay and concluded that the high ratio is due to extraterrestrial debris amounting to ~1% of the sediment. A decade later Krylov et al. (1973) compiled 3He/4He isotopic data on ocean sediments measured in the Soviet Union and observed that the 3He/4He ratio is generally higher in pelagic sediments where the sedimentation rate is lower. They suggested that the high 3He/4He ratio was attributable to extraterrestrial materials which were concentrated in slowly accumulating ocean floor. However, these important discoveries were almost completely neglected until we re-examined the problem. We have measured 39 sediments from 12 different sites, 10 sites from the western to central Pacific and two sites from the Atlantic Ocean. We find 3He/4He ratios >5 * 10**-5 for six sites, well above the values generally observed in common terrestrial materials. The very high 3He/4He ratio in the sediments is probably due to input of extraterrestrial materials. Input of stratospheric dust of <1 p.p.m., which corresponds to a fallout rate of ~2,000 tons per year, can explain the observation