AFI 02/36_04 - Geochemical Tracing of Pacific-to-Atlantic Mantle Flow through the Drake Passage/Scotia Sea Gateway - Geochemical analysis of rock samples collected by dredging in the Scotia Sea, February and March 2004

The initial aim of this project was to carry out a higher resolution geochemical study of mantle flow using existing samples. This confirmed flow from the Bouvet domain into the East Scotia Sea and placed constraints on flow pathways. The second stage was to sample further within the West Scotia Sea and to use elemental and isotope (Sr, Nd, Pb, Hf) analyses to fingerprint mantle provenance. The results were used to locate and investigate the nature of the Pacific-South Atlantic mantle domain boundary and thus to contribute to the understanding and quantification of global upper mantle fluxes.