SAMARIUM-NEODYMIUM SYSTEMATICS IN KIMBERLITES AND IN THE MINERALS OF GARNET LHERZOLITE INCLUSIONS

The initial ratios of neodymium-143 to neodymium-144 in kimberlites ranging in age between 90 × 106 to 1300 × 106 years from South Africa, India, and the United States are different from the corresponding ratios in the minerals of peridotite inclusions in the kimberlites but are identical to the ratios in the basaltic achondrite Juvinas at the times of emplacement of the respective kimberlite pipes. This correlation between the kimberlites and Juvinas, which represents the bulk chondritic earth in rare-earth elements, strongly indicates that the kimberlite's source in the mantle is chondritic in rare-earth elements and relatively primeval in composition. Copyright © 1979 AAAS.