238 U/ 235 U Systematics in Terrestrial Uranium-Bearing Minerals

The present-day (238)U/(235)U ratio has fundamental implications for uranium-lead geochronology and cosmochronology. A value of 137.88 has previously been considered invariant and has been used without uncertainty to calculate terrestrial mineral ages. We report high-precision (238)U/(235)U measurements for a suite of uranium-bearing minerals from 58 samples representing a diverse range of lithologies. This data set exhibits a range in (238)U/(235)U values of >5 per mil, with no clear relation to any petrogenetic, secular, or regional trends. Variation between comagmatic minerals suggests that (238)U/(235)U fractionation processes operate at magmatic temperatures. A mean (238)U/(235)U value of 137.818 ± 0.045…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council