This research will be supported by field, geologic and scientific advice from Dr. G. V. Nesterenko of the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry in Moscow, who has already provided approximately 50 samples of Siberian Flood Basalt Province (SFBP) which are fresh, and well-controlled in terms of their volcano-stratigraphic positions. The plan of this initial study is to characterize the overall temporal and spatial variations in the SFBP by analyzing the rest of the samples for Sm-Nd, Rb-Sr, and U-Th-Pb systematics. Some of these samples are also selected for grain-picking to do a laser-heating 40Ar/39Ar age determinations, to be done at the Institute for Human Origins. The proposed research on the SFBP will provide new information through which to study and interpret the origin of other flood basalt provinces.
