Cretaceous basalts were recovered during a number of DSDP Legs form the western Pacific. The age of this crust is clearly anomalous and how such voluminous crust formed is a difficult problem. So far, researchers have not dealt with these samples because of their high degree of alteration and difficulty in analyzing such altered samples for their isotopic ratios. The PI will develop a new technique to analyze them and these analyses will minimize alteration effects on chemical composition. The data to be gathered will be important in deciphering the origin(s) of this Cretaceous crust.
