『Abstract
　The Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic compositions of both saprolites and parent rocks of a profile of intensively weathered Neogene basalts in Hainan, South China are reported in this paper to investigate changes of isotopic systematics with high masses. The results indicate that all these isotopic systematics show significant changes in saprolites compared to those in corresponding parent rocks. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr system was more seriously affected by weathering processes than other isotope systems, with εSr drifts 30 to 70 away from those of the parent rocks. In the upper profile (＞2.2 m), the Sr isotopes of the saprolites show an upward increasing of Sr concentrations, from 〜10μg/g to 〜25μg/g. As nearly all the Sr of the parent rock has been removed during intensive weathering in this profile, the upward increasing of Sr concentrations in the upper profile suggests import of extraneous Sr. Rainwater in this region, which enriches in Sr (up to 139μg/L) from seawater, may be the important extraneous source. Thus, the Sr isotopes of the saprolites in the upper profile may be mainly influenced by import of extraneous materials, and the Sr isotopic characteristics may not be retained. In contrast, the εNd and εHf of the saprolites drift only 0-2.6 and 0-3.7 away from the parent rocks, respectively. The negative drifts of the εNd and εHf are coupled with Nd and Hf losses in the saprolites; i.e., larger proportions of Nd and Hf loss correspond to lower εNd and εHf. Compared with the relative high Nd and Hf concentrations of the saprolites, the contributions of extraneous Nd and Hf both from wet and dry deposits of aeolian input are negligible. Thus, the εNd and εHf changes in the profile are mainly resulted from consecutive removal of the Nd and Hf. Calculation indicates that the ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd and ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf ratios in saprolites are all significantly lower than their initial values in the parent rock. Simply removing part of the Nd and Hf by incongruent decomposing some of the minerals may not account for this. Fractionation should be happen, which ¹⁴³Nd and ¹⁷⁶Hf may be preferentially removed from the profile relative to ¹⁴⁴Nd and ¹⁷⁷Hf during intensive chemical weathering, resulting in lower ¹⁴³Nd/¹⁴⁴Nd and ¹⁷⁶Hf/¹⁷⁷Hf ratios in saprolites relative to the parent rock, even though details for this process is not known. A positive correlation is observed between the εNd and εHf of the saprolites. Interestingly, the saprolites with a net loss of Nd and Hf in the upper profile show good positive correlation, and the regression line parallels the terrestrial array. By contrast, saprolites with a net gain of Nd and Hf in the lower profile generally show higher εHf values at a given εNd value, and the regression line between these εNd and εHf appears to parallel the seawater array. This supports the hypothesis that the contribution of continental Hf from chemical weathering release is the key to the obliquity of the seawater array away from the terrestrial array of the global εNd and εHf correlation. Our results also indicate that caution is needed when using εSr,εNd, and εHf to trace provenances for sediments and soils.

Keywords: saprolites; Sr-Nd-Hf isotope; Intensive weathering; South China』

1. Introduction
2. Materials and analytical methods
3. Results
4. Discussion
　4.1. Sr-Nd-Hf isotope variations during chemical weathering
　　4.1.1. Variations of Sr and Sr isotopic systematics
　　4.1.2. Variations of the Nd and Hf isotopes
　4.2. Correlations between Nd and Hf isotopes
　4.3. Implications for Sr, Nd, and Hf isotopes as sediment provenance proxies
5. Summary
Acknowledgements
References