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Stuessy et al. 1984

Stuessy, T.F., Foland, K.A., Sutter, J.F., Sanders, R.W. and Silva O, M. (1984). Botanical and geological significance of potassium-argon dates from the Juan Fernandez Islands. Science 225(4657): 49-51.

Potassium-argon dating of five basalts from the three main islands of the Juan Fernandez (or Robinson Crusoe) Islands of Chile in the southeastern Pacific gives ages of 1.01 + or - 0.12 and 2.44 + or - 0.14 million years for Masafuera, 3.79 + or - 0.20 and 4.23 + or - 0.16 for Masatierra, and 5.8 + or - 2.1 for Santa Clara. These ages are much younger than that of the underlying oceanic plate and are consistent with the origin of the island-seamount chain from a mantle hot spot beneath the eastward moving Nazca Plate. The young age for the archipelago suggests that speciation within endemic genera has occurred within the past 4 to 5 million years.--Modified journal abstract.

Keywords
absolute age; basalts; biogeography; Cenozoic; Chile; crust;, dates; East Pacific; geochronology; igneous rocks; islands; Juan, Feruandez Islands; K/Ar; movement; Neogene; oceanic crust; Pacific, Ocean; Plantae; plate tectonics; Pleistocene; Quaternary; Robinson, Crusoe Islands; seamounts; South America; South American Pacific;, South Pacific; Southeast Pacific; tectonophysics; Tertiary;, volcanic rocks; whole rock, 03, Geochronology

Journal
Science
http://www.sciencemag.org/

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