ARE DISCONTINUOUS CHONDRITE-NORMALIZED REE PATTERNS IN PEGMATITIC GRANITE SYSTEMS THE RESULTS OF MONAZITE FRACTIONATION

All 14 stable rare earth elements (REEs) in biotite-muscovite granite and tourmaline-rich granite of the Harney Peak Granite, Black Hills, South Dakota, USA, have been analyzed using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Chrondrite-normalized REE patterns of the tourmaline-rich granites are discontinuous between Nd and Sm. The discontinuity was modeled successfully by the fractional crystallization of monazite from a biotite-muscovite granite initial composition. This explanation may also apply to the development of such discontinuous patterns in other highly evolved rocks. © 1990.