Strontium isotope composition of sedimentary rocks and its application to chemostratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions

Strontium isotope composition of seawater is homogenous in all oceans and marginal seas but has  varied  through  time  with  changing  strontium  fluxes.  Strontium  isotope  ratio  of  ancient  seawater  may  be  reconstructed  from  well-preserved  authigenic  minerals  and  used  for  dating  marine  sediments.  Because of a change in the strontium isotope ratio between sea- and freshwaters it can also be employed for the determination of palaeosalinities or the reconstruction of diagenetic processes of marine limestones.  A  review  of  methodology  and  practical  hints  concerning  the  utilization  of  strontium  isotopes  in  geological  studies  of  both  marine  and  brackish  sediments  are  presented  in  the  current  article.