Preservation of Earth-forming events in the tungsten isotopic composition of modern flood basalts
Preservation of Earth-forming events in the tungsten isotopic composition of modern flood basalts
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Date
2016
Authors
Rizo, Hanika
Walker, Richard
Carlson, Richard
Horan, Mary
Mukhopadhyay, Sujoy
Manthos, Vicky
Francis, Don
Jackson, Matthew
Advisor
Citation
10.1126/science.aad8563
DRUM DOI
Abstract
How much of Earth's compositional variation dates to processes occurring during
16 planet formation remains an unanswered question. High precision W isotopic data for rocks from two large igneous provinces, the North Atlantic Igneous Province and the Ontong Java Plateau, reveal preservation to the Phanerozoic of W isotopic heterogeneities in the mantle. These heterogeneities, caused by the decay of 182Hf in high Hf/W ratio mantle domains, were created during the first ~50 Ma of Solar System history, and imply that portions of the mantle that formed during Earth’s primary accretionary period have survived to the present.