a 100 kyr periodicity in the flux of extraterrestrial 3he to the sea floor most of the helium 3 in oceanic sediments comes from interplanetary dust particles idps and can therefore be used to infer the accretion rate of dust to the earth through time 3he records from slowly accumulating pelagic clays indicate that the accretion rate varies considerably over millions of years probably owing to cometary and asteroidal break up events muller and macdonald have proposed that periodic changes in this accretion rate due to a previously unrecognized 100 kyr periodicity in the earth s orbital inclination might account for the prominence of this frequency in climate records of the past million years here we report variations in the 3 he flux to the sea floor that support this idea we find that the flux recorded in rapidly accumulating quaternary sediments from the mid atlantic ridge oscillates with a period of about 100 kyr we cannot yet say however whether the 100 kyr climate cycle is a consequence of a cause of or an effect independent of these periodic changes

dating of sirius group tillites in the antarctic dry valleys with cosmogenic3he and21ne we measured in situ produced cosmogenic3he and21ne in boulder and bedrock surface samples in and near sirius group tillites from two localities in southern victoria land antarctica pyroxene quantitatively retains cosmogenic3he for millions of years the deposit at mt fleming has a minimum exposure age of 6 5 ma while 6 ma is a probable minimum age for the table mountain tillite these lower limits not taking into account erosion of the sampled surfaces are based on the samples with the highest concentrations of cosmogenic noble gases and currently accepted production rates since the plagioclase bearing mt fleming samples almost certainly lost part of their cosmogenic ne the minimum exposure age at this location is presumably even 50 higher than the stated value the concentrations of cosmogenic ne in our samples constrain uplift rates of the transantarctic mountains to 170 m ma these data contradict the hypothesis of a collapse of the east antarctic ice sheet in the pliocene coupled with high uplift rates and support the model of a stable ice sheet since the middle miocene

new insights into the carrier phase s of extraterrestrial 3he in geologically old sediments to better understand the composition characteristics of helium diffusion and size distribution of interplanetary dust particles idps responsible for the long term retention of extraterrestrial 3he we carried out leaching stepped heating and sieving experiments on pelagic clays that varied in age from 0 5 ma to 90 myr the leaching experiments suggest that the host phase s of 3he in geologically old sediments are neither organic matter nor refractory phases such as diamond graphite al2o3 and sic but are consistent with extraterrestrial silicates fe ni sulfides and possibly magnetite stepped heating experiments demonstrate that the 3he release profiles from the magnetic and non magnetic components of the pelagic clays are remarkably similar because helium diffusion is likely to be controlled by mineral chemistry and structure the stepped heating results suggest a single carrier that may be magnetite or more probably a phase associated with magnetite furthermore the stepped outgassing experiments indicate that about 20 of the 3he will be lost through diffusion at seafloor temperatures after 50 myrs while sedimentary rocks exposed on the earth s surface for the same amount of time would lose up to 60 the absolute magnitude of the 3he loss is however likely to depend upon the 3he concentration profile within the idps which is not well known contrary to previous suggestions that micrometeorites in the size range of 50 100 m in diameter are responsible for the extraterrestrial 3he in geologically old sediments stuart f m harrop p j knott s turner g 1999 laser extraction of helium isotopes from antarctic micrometeorites source of he and implications for the flux of extraterrestrial 3he flux to earth geochim cosmochim acta63 2653 2665 our sieving experiment demonstrates that at most 20 of the 3he is carried by particles greater than 50 m in diameter the size distribution of the 3he bearing particles implies that extraterrestrial 3he in sediments record the idp flux rather than the micrometeorite flux

millennial scale variability in red sea circulation in response to holocene insolation forcing in order to assess how insolation driven climate change superimposed on sea level rise and millennial events influenced the red sea during the holocene we present new paleoceanographic records from two sediment cores to develop a comprehensive reconstruction of holocene circulation dynamics in the basin we show that the recovery of the planktonic foraminiferal fauna after the younger dryas was completed earlier in the northern than in the central red sea implying significant changes in the hydrological balance of the northern red sea region during the deglaciation in the early part of the holocene the environment of the red sea closely followed the development of the indian summer monsoon and was dominated by a circulation mode similar to the current summer circulation with low productivity throughout the central and northern red sea the climatic signal during the late holocene is dominated by a faunal transient event centered around 2 4 ka bp its timing corresponds to that of north atlantic bond event 2 and to a widespread regionally recorded dry period this faunal transient is characterized by a more productive foraminiferal fauna and can be explained by an intensification of the winter circulation mode and high evaporation the modern distribution pattern of planktonic foraminifera reflecting the prevailing circulation system was established after 1 7 ka bp

u th he dating of volcanic phenocrysts with high u th inclusions jemez volcanic field new mexico we measured u th he ages of fayalite and hedenbergite phenocrysts with britholite and chevkinite inclusions from the 1 6 ma otowi lower member of the bandelier tuff jemez volcanic field u and th the major parent nuclides of radiogenic 4 he are concentrated in britholite and chevkinite inclusions and are essentially absent from the host grains we analyzed 36 fayalite 21 non abraded 15 abraded and 13 hedenbergite 7 non abraded 6 abraded phenocrysts and applied alpha ejection corrections assuming uniform intracrystalline distributions of inclusions and parent nuclides in the phenocrysts a subset of phenocrysts was subjected to abrasion to remove the alpha ejection affected regions the alpha ejection correction factors ft of the non abraded samples range between 0 90 and 0 96 whereas those of the abraded samples are virtually unity the fayalite and hedenbergite crystals yield mean ages of 1 60f0 10 ma s d and 1 69f0 13 ma respectively the overall mean age of 1 62f0 11 ma s d is indistinguishable from previously published 40 ar 39 ar ages of 1 61f0 01 ma 1j our results suggest that other inclusion

flux of4he from carnmenellis granite modelling of an hdr geothermal reservoir abstract the diffusion coefficient d of he in the carnmenellis granite recovered from the rosemanowes hot dry rock hdr geothermal reservoir is experimentally determined in the laboratory in a temperature range of 100 300 c temperature variation of d fits an arrhenius plot but yields an activation energy for he release from rock significantly lower than the value for feldspar or quartz suggesting that most of the he in the reservoir granite resides within grain boundaries and jointing cement and may be easily released the reservoir surface area s is estimated based on the laboratory determined value of d from granite and the measured4he contents of circulation fluids from rh 15 well in the first year of reservoir circulation 4he based reservoir surface area was about twice that based on222rn it increased and stabilized at about 6 times after 2 a the excess he release from newly opened up fracture surfaces within the reservoir during its expansion is shown to be responsible for the temporal increase in the he based reservoir surface area over that of rn

cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages and glacial history of late quaternary ross sea drift in mcmurdo sound antarctica 3he 10be and26al surface exposure ages were determined for rock samples from late quaternary drift sheets deposited on the coast of mcmurdo sound antarctica by the ross sea ice sheet the youngest drift previously believed to be late wisconsin in age has exposure ages of 8 106 kyr 19 samples these results suggest that the apparent late wisconsin ice margin may represent a number of ice sheet advances during the last glacial period 3he exposure ages from analogous stratigraphically older drift range from 104 to 567 kyr seven samples and clearly distinguish the youngest drift from older deposits comparison of10be and3he concentrations in ross sea drift quartz samples indicates significant3he loss in only one sample suggesting that cosmogenic3he is generally retained in young antarctic quartz samples exposure age 100 kyr of appropriate grain size in two of the five quartz samples analyzed significant excesses of26al relative to10be preclude meaningful26al exposure age calculations these excesses may be due to nucleogenic26al produced as a byproduct of uranium and thorium decay

quantifying the diffusion kinetics and spatial distributions of radiogenic 4he in minerals containing proton induced 3he apatite titanite and olivine samples were bombarded with a 150 mev proton beam to produce 10 8 atoms mg of spallation 3he high precision stepped heating experiments were then performed in which the artificial 3he and for apatite and titanite the natural radiogenic 4he were measured to characterize the diffusive behavior of each isotope helium 3 diffusion coefficients are in excellent agreement with concurrently and or previously determined he diffusion coefficients for each mineral our results indicate that proton induced 3he is uniformly distributed and that radiation damage associated with a proton fluence of 5 x 10 14 protons cm 2 does not cause noticeable changes in 4he diffusion behavior in at least apatite and titanite proton induced 3he can therefore be used to establish he diffusion coefficients in minerals with insufficient natural helium for analysis or those in which the natural 4he distribution is inhomogeneous in addition step heating 4he 3he analysis of a mineral with a uniform synthetic 3he concentration provides a means by which a natural 4he distribution can be determined

the isotopic composition of radiogenic helium and its use to study groundwater movement in confined aquifers abstract the 3 he 4 he ratio for radiogenic he is shown to be primarily determined by the abundance of li and neutron absorbing elements in the host formations and is almost independent of the radioelement abundance the 3 he 4 he ratios have been computed for various li contents in rock matrices with average abundances of other elements the 3 he 4 he ratio is specific for each formation and may therefore be used to study crustal diffusion of he it is shown however that both the 3he and 4he contents of continental basements are likely to exceed those of the mantle so that diffusion of mantle he through continental crust is not likely to occur changes in the 3 he 4 he ratio for dissolved he have potential for studying groundwater movement and mixing processes atmospheric he which was dissolved at recharge is progressively diluted by radiogenic he with an isotopic ratio characteristic of the aquifer as the groundwater migrates down dip mixing proportions for formation he and atmospheric he in aquifers for which there is admixture of fracture borne water and interstitially stored water can also be estimated from isotopic measurements these processes are discussed in relation to two aquifers in eastern england

diffusion of cosmogenic3he in olivine and quartz implications for surface exposure dating abstract thein situ production of3he in surface rocks by cosmic ray induced nuclear reactions offers an important geochronological tool to evaluate helium loss problems in this technique cosmogenic3he diffusivities were measured in quartz and olivine by incremental heating at 150 600 c arrhenius temperature dependences were observed in both minerals with similar activation energies ea 25 4 kcal mole logd0 3 7 0 9 in olivine andea 25 2 0 9 logd0 0 2 0 4 in quartz and imply very low diffusivities when extrapolated to environmental temperatures less than 10 18 cm2 s in quartz and 10 22 cm2 s in olivine at 20 c these low diffusivities suggest helium loss will not significantly affect cosmogenic helium exposure dating for time scales on the order of 106 years in quartz and 109 years in olivine provided large 2 mm sample grains are used exposure ages obtained with smaller grains need to be corrected for diffusive helium loss and equations are provided for this purpose cosmogenic3he diffuses more than 100 times faster than trapped magmatic3he in olivine or radiogenic4he in quartz the mechanisms responsible for these differences have yet to be determined but may involve both trapping processes at mineral defects and enhanced mobility associated with spallation produced crystal damage therefore it is possible that helium diffusivities may depend on a sample s cosmic ray exposure or radiogenic production history whatever the precise mechanism the higher mobility of3he suggests that incremental heating will be useful in separating cosmogenic helium from magmatic or radiogenic helium in future studies comparison of the diffusivity results with total cosmogenic3he contents of different quartz size fractions for an antarctic quartzite suggests that he loss may have occurred more rapidly than predicted by the laboratory measurements nonetheless retention of cosmogenic3he is quite high equivalent to more than a million years of exposure and cosmogenic3he geochronology is feasible in this and other quartz containing rocks

cosmogenic 3he in terrestrial rocks the summit lavas of maui we have identified terrestrial cosmic rayproduced 3he in three lava flows on the crest of haleakala volcano on maui 3 km above sea level and 0 5 million years old although these lavas like all oceanic basalts contain primordial 3he from the mantle the cosmogenic component 3hec can be identified unambiguously because it is extractable only by high temperature vacuum fusion in contrast a large fraction of the mantle helium resides in fluid inclusions and can be extracted by vacuum crushing leaving a residual component with 3he 4he ratios as high as 75 those in the atmosphere which can be liberated by melting the crushed grains cosmogenic 3he is present in both olivines and clinopyroxenes at 0 8 1 2 10 12 ml stp g and constitutes 75 5 of the total 3he present the observed 3hec levels require a cosmic ray exposure age of only some 64 000 years much less than the actual age of the lavas if there is no erosion using a model that includes effects of uplift or submergence as well as erosion we calculate an apparent erosion rate of the order of 8 5 m 106 years for the western rim of the summit crater as an example of the application of measurements of cosmogenic rare gases to terrestrial geological problems

dating geomorphologic surfaces using cosmogenic 3he cosmogenically produced 3he in rocks can be used to date geomorphologic surfaces using the late pleistocene bonneville flood event the subsequent development of the provo shoreline and associated volcanic rocks a production rate of 432 atoms g yr in olivine is determined for 38 56 n latitude present geomagnetic latitude 46 5 at 1445 m altitude integrated over the last 14 400 years measurements of cosmogenic helium in flood deposits on river scoured surfaces and lava flows show that it is possible to date directly large scale events such as volcanic eruptions and catastrophic floods olivine and pyroxene are both satisfactory minerals for cosmogenic dating by the 3he method however in most cases plagioclase and quartz are unsuitable because they do not quantitatively retain helium isotopes in their lattices

cosmic ray exposure dating with in situ produced cosmogenic 3he results from young hawaiian lava flows in an effort to determine the in situ production rate of spallation produced cosmogenic 3 he and evaluate its use as a surface exposure chronometer we have measured cosmogenic helium contents in a suite of hawaiian radiocarbon dated lava flows the lava flows ranging in age from 600 to 13 000 years were collected from hualalai and mauna loa volcanoes on the island of hawaii because cosmic ray surface exposure dating requires the complete absence of erosion or soil cover these lava flows were selected specifically for this purpose the 3 he production rate measured within olivine phenocrysts was found to vary significantly ranging from 47 to 150 atoms g 1 yr 1 normalized to sea level although there is considerable scatter in the data the samples younger than 10 000 years are well preserved and exposed and the production rate variations are therefore not related to erosion or soil cover data averaged over the past 2000 years indicate a sea level 3 he production rate of 125 30atoms g 1 yr 1 which agrees well with previous estimates the longer record suggests a minimum in sea level normalized 3 he production rate between 2000 and 7000 years 55 15atoms g 1 yr 1 as compared to samples younger than 2000 years 125 30 atoms g 1 yr 1 and those between 7000 and 10 000 years 127 19atoms g 1 yr 1 the minimum in production rate is similar in age to that which would be produced by variations in geomagnetic field strength as indicated by archeomagnetic data however the production rate variations a factor of 2 3 0 8 are poorly determined due to the large uncertainties in the youngest samples and questions of surface preservation for the older samples calculations using the atmospheric production model of o brien 1979 35 and the method of lal and peters 1967 11 predict smaller production rate variations for similar variation in dipole moment a factor of 1 15 1 65 because the production rate variations archeomagnetic data and theoretical estimates are not well determined at present the relationship between dipole moment and production rate will require further study precise determination of the production rate is an important uncertainty in the surface exposure technique but the data demonstrate that it is feasible to date samples as young as 600 years of age providing that there has been no erosion or soil cover therefore the technique will have important applications for volcanology glacial geology geomorphology and archaeology

cosmogenic 3he production rate in ilmenite and the redistribution of spallation 3he in fine grained minerals cosmogenic nuclide surface exposure dating and erosion rate measurements in basaltic landscapes rely primarily on measurement of 3he in olivine or pyroxene however geochemical investigations using 3he have been impossible in the substantial fraction of basalts that lack separable olivine or pyroxene crystals or where such crystals were present but have been chemically weathered fine textured basalts often contain small grains of ilmenite a weathering resistant mineral that is a target for cosmogenic 3he production with good he retention and straightforward mineral separation but with a poorly constrained production rate here we empirically calibrate the cosmogenic 3he production rate in ilmenite by measuring 3he concentrations in basalts with fine grained 20 m cross section ilmenite and co existing pyroxene or olivine from the columbia river and snake river plain basalt provinces in the western united states the concentration ratio of ilmenite to pyroxene and olivine is 0 78 0 02 yielding an apparent cosmogenic 3he production rate of 93 6 7 7 atom g 1 yr 1 that is 20 30 greater than expected from prior theoretical and empirical estimates for compositionally similar minerals the production rate discrepancy arises from the high energy with which cosmic ray spallation reactions emit tritium and 3he and the associated long stopping distances that cause them to redistribute within a rock fine grained phases with low cosmogenic 3he production rates like ilmenite will have anomalously high production rates owing to net implantation of 3he from the surrounding higher 3he production rate matrix semi quantitative modeling indicates implantation of spallation 3he increases with decreasing ilmenite grain size leading to production rates that exceed those in a large grain by 10 when grain radii are 150 m the modeling predicts that for the ilmenite grain size in our samples implantation causes production rates to be 20 greater than expected for a large grain and within uncertainty resolves the discrepancy between our calibrated production rate theory and rates from previous work the redistribution effect is maximized when the host rock and crystals differ substantially in mean atomic number as they do between whole rock basalt and ilmenite

cosmic ray produced neon and helium in the summit lavas of maui a 3he component attributed to cosmic ray induced spallation reactions 3hec in silicate minerals has recently been identified in lava flows on the summit of haleakala volcano on maui1 3 this3hec is observed in the helium extracted by fusion of olivine and pyroxene phenocrysts after first removing almost all of the mantle derived helium by vacuum crushing a procedure which releases the volatiles trapped in fluid inclusions within the phenocrysts cosmic ray produced 3he was found in the high altitude 3 000 m summit lavas which are 500 000 years old but was not observed in sub surface samples which were overlain by younger basalts2 or in a 200 yr old lava flow at sea level on maui1 2 we report here the identification of cosmic ray produced 21nec in addition to 3hec in gases extracted by fusion of olivines and clinopyroxenes after vacuum crushing the observed 3he 21ne c ratios and the ratio of 21nec in olivine to that in clinopyroxene are consistent with an in situ origin of 3hec and 21nec by cosmic ray spallation reactions this component could be important for interpreting helium isotopic data in terrestrial reservoirs geophysical applications could include determinations of erosion rates and exposure histories of terrestrial rocks

cosmogenic 10be and 3he accumulation in pleistocene beach terraces in death valley california u s a implications for cosmic ray exposure dating of young surfaces in hot climates to investigate the history of pleistocene lake levels in the southwestern u s a and to improve our understanding of the systematics of in situ produced cosmogenic nuclide accumulation in hot climates and young rocks we examined the 3he 10be and 26al contents of quartz separates from metamorphic quartzites and quartz rich felsic rocks incorporated in a series of stranded conglomerate beach ridges ranging from 3 to 160 m above sea level in death valley california calculated 10be ages range from 17 to 135 kyr with most ages between 20 and 60 kyr in contrast cosmogenic 3he contents indicate exposure ages of 1 kyr except for one sample at 18 4 kyr for which the 10be age is still significantly greater 44 11 kyr 26al10be ratios close to the cosmogenic production ratio rule out the presence of meteoric 10be and point to 3he loss as the cause of the age discrepancies comparison to laboratory diffusive loss measurements using a diurnal direct solar heating model implies the 3he loss occurs because the effective quartz grain sizes are 100 m far smaller than the 1 3 mm fracture spacings estimated from thin sections because direct insolation enhances 3he loss sampling from shallow depths 20 40 cm may be useful in some cases 4he and 20ne measurements demonstrate that small amounts of radiogenic and atmospheric 3he are also present at levels equivalent to a few kiloyears sea level exposure which should be taken into account when dating surfaces of similar age the lack of any clear progression with terrace altitude and the occurrence of two fold variations in apparent exposure ages within individual terraces suggest that the 10be contents do not solely represent accumulation in the present sample locations instead accumulation probably also occurred during sample exposure in the higher altitude beach rock source regions and during fluvial transport to the ancient lake shore thus the beach terrace exposure ages of 20 60 kyr are probably maximum ages for the times of these high lake level stands in death valley

high 3he 4he ratios in peridotite xenoliths from sw japan revisited evidence for cosmogenic 3he released by vacuum crushing 1 in isotope studies of magmatic systems magmatic he is preferentially extracted by crushing minerals under vacuum whereas cosmogenic and or radiogenic he isotopes are released by mineral melting as they are produced and remain in the mineral s matrix interpretation of magma source composition or surface residence time depends on the assumption that vacuum crushing releases insignificant cosmogenic 3he we reinvestigated the helium isotopic composition of olivines in xenoliths from takashima and kurose volcanoes japan which were reported to have high 3he 4he interpreted as mantle plume contributions sumino et al 2000 ikeda et al 2001 combining vacuum crushing and heating protocols we show that samples from both localities contain considerable concentrations of cosmogenic 3he significantly up to 25 of the matrix sited helium was extracted by prolonged crushing it seems possible that previous high 3he 4he ratios measured in samples from kurose and takashima were the result of the high cosmogenic 3he concentrations and do not imply a mantle plume beneath japan for kurose lavas sampled about 1 m above present day sea level exposure ages computed from cosmogenic 3he accumulation are similar to k ar eruption ages of 1 13 0 12 ma implying that erosion of the sampling site has been limited and that the samples have not been below sea level for prolonged periods during the last myr helium extraction from the matrix by crushing cannot be explained by volume diffusion because the diffusivity of helium in olivine is slow at the crushing temperature and therefore requires an additional mechanism to enhance the release a fracture related extraction mechanism may be responsible for this phenomenon and a semiquantitative model is developed assuming that the increase in specific surface area during crushing represents newly created fractures according to this model he released from about 10 unit cells of olivine from the fracture results in helium extraction of only 1 but the spallation damage tracks along fractures may provide sufficient pathway for observed helium extraction of up to 25

natural accumulation of schottky frenkel defects implications for a quartz geochronometer electron spin resonance esr analyses have been made of natural quartz samples ranging in age from 100 ka to 1 4 ga signal intensities of two esr centers that can be associated with schottky frenkel sf defects are significantly correlated with age these defects are thought to accumulate naturally as a result of elastic collisions in the quartz lattice initiated by the recoil of alpha emitting nuclides present as impurities preliminary indications are that recoil induced sf defects can be significantly more abundant than original sf defects in samples older than several million years these considerations provide the theoretical basis for a long ranging quartz geochronometer

assessing the syngeneity and indigeneity of hydrocarbons in the 1 4 ga velkerri formation mcarthur basin using slice experiments abstract many applications involving analysis of the hydrocarbons in petroleum systems rely upon the assumption that there has been no contamination of the sample precambrian basins are particularly susceptible to hydrocarbon overprinting from contamination due to both age and commonly a low total organic carbon toc content in this study three cores mcmanus 1 walton 2 and shea 1 from the deep marine 1 46 ga old velkerri formation mcarthur basin were subjected to slice experiments and analysis using gas chromatography mass spectrometry gc ms internal slices had consistent hydrocarbon signals providing strong evidence that the organic matter om in the inner slices was indigenous in all three cores both the aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbon signatures indicated that the exterior of the core was exposed to contamination from both the drilling and sawing processes this contamination overprinted and had the potential to completely obscure the indigenous hydrocarbon signal highlighting the importance of the removal of the exterior portion of the core prior to analysis even for organic rich rocks aromatic ratios indicated all cores were within the oil window and that mcmanus 1 had the highest maturity and walton 2 the lowest walton 2 was the only core to contain biomarkers above the limit of detection lod evidence of high bacterial input to the om included the presence of hopanes bicyclic sesquiterpanes and monomethyl alkanes steranes were absent or below the lod in all cores suggesting a very low or zero contribution from eukaryotes to this deep water low o 2 depositional environment

surface exposure chronology using in situ cosmogenic 3he in antarctic quartz sandstone boulders abstract in situ produced cosmogenic helium 3 he c provides a new tool for constraining histories of quaternary geomorphic surfaces before general application of the technique however the systematics and production rates of 3 he c must be well understood in a companion study 3 he and 10 be data from sandstone and granite boulders in the dry valleys region of antarctica have been used to constrain the ages of an important moraine sequence formed by the taylor glacier data from these deposits also provide information about the systematics of 3 he in quartz that has important implications for geochronology based on 3 hec in contrast to previous results from olivine and clinopyroxene crushing quartz in vacuo releases helium with high 3 he 4 he ratios up to 148 r a where r a is the atmospheric 3 he 4 he ratio indicating that crushing cannot be used to determine the isotopic composition of trapped i e noncosmogenic helium in quartz analysis of 3 he in different size fractions of the same samples indicates significant 3 he loss not predicted by existing 3 he diffusion data for quartz the origin of the discrepancy is not clear but loss from these samples is not as significant as suggested by the limited data of previous studies

he diffusion in olivine helium diffusion in olivine dunite xenolith has been measured in the temperature range 1180 1460 c a linear arrhenius function was obtained with an activation energy of 120 27 32 kcal mole and a pre exponential factor d0 2 2 108 cm2 s diffusion mechanisms are not a viable means of degassing he from the mantle olivine phenocrysts can be expected to retain previously trapped he during cooling in extrusive basalts provided the flow units are thinner than 50 m xenoliths will retain mantle he signatures only if magma transport times are less than 50 years or if the he fugacity in the magma is high enough to prevent xenolith degassing the lower oceanic crust is probably substantially degassed of he trapped he will be qualitatively retained in quenched submarine basalt glass only if the cooling rate is faster than 5 1014 c m y glass at several centimeters depth in a basalt flow near the spherulite zone will have cooling rates lower than this so he loss may be significant in many basalt glass samples