Spatial distribution of strontium and neodymium isotopes in South America: a summary for provenance research

Abstract

Isotopic methods have become an important tool in the study of natural processes and countless applications have proven valuable in several research areas. Geologically, strontium and neodymium isotopes also fractionate in Earth surface environments. The difference is that measured radiogenic isotope ratios are normalized to a fixed stable isotope ratio during analysis, so that any natural mass dependent isotope fractionation in analysed samples is canceled. All data was obtained from academic journals and has been spatialized in a Geographic Information System (GIS), the analysis of which has subsidized the identification, where data are more clustered or dispersed. Understanding the distribution of 87Sr/86Sr e εNd(0) in different regions of South America is very important to demonstrate how Nd/Sr signatures can be used to distinguish various terrains and localities on a regional scale, through the selection, organization, inventory, and arrangement of 386 data in sedimentary basins and crystalline shields.