Non-chondritic platinum-group element ratios in the Earth's mantle

Details Non-chondritic platinum-group element ratios in the Earth's mantle Non-chondritic platinum-group element ratios in the Earth's mantle

Feb 1996

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1996natur.379..712p&link_type=abstract

Nature, Volume 379, Issue 6567, pp. 712-715 (1996).

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Scientific paper

THE Earth's upper mantle has an overabundance of highly siderophile elements (platinum-group elements, gold and rhenium), relative to what would be expected from equilibrium with the metallic core1-3. This excess is now widely believed to have been introduced as a "late veneer" by meteorite bombardment during early Earth history, but after separation of the core4. Here we report high-precision analyses of platinum-group elements (PGEs) from fertile upper-mantle Iherzolites, which show variations in relative abundances that exceed those in the chondritic meteorites that are thought to have furnished the late veneer5. In particular, the Pd/Ir ratio, at about 1.76, is significantly greater than that of known chondritic meteorites6. Our results, combined with previous indications of both non-chondritic and nearly chondritic PGE ratios in the few other fertile mantle Iherzolites that have been analysed2,3,7-11, strongly suggest that the mantle is heterogeneous in its PGE content on scales of ~100 kilometres. If the observed PGE ratios can be reconciled with a plausible meteoritic source, the observed heterogeneity may reflect an original spatial variation in the late veneer; otherwise, an additional fractionation mechanism seems to be required.

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