Do decades of tropical rainfall affect the chemical compositions of basaltic lava flows in Mount Cameroon?

The absence of significant chemical mobility and substantial isotopic exchange suggests very limited interaction between water and lavas at the centimeter scale, due, most probably, to their relatively young age. This work shows that over a period of about 100 years, no detectable geochemical changes are observed. These results are very promising for petrological and geochemical studies of ocean island basalts located in tropical areas since they provide direct evidence of very limited trace element mobility at the century time scale.