Highly siderophile elements were stripped from Earth’s mantle by iron sulfide segregation

Title data

Rubie, David C. ; Laurenz, Vera ; Jacobson, Seth A. ; Morbidelli, Alessandro ; Palme, Herbert ; Vogel, Antje K. ; Frost, Daniel J.:
Highly siderophile elements were stripped from Earth’s mantle by iron sulfide segregation.
In: Science. Vol. 353 (2016) Issue 6304 . - pp. 1141-1144.
ISSN 1095-9203
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf6919

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

Highly siderophile elements (HSEs) are strongly depleted in the bulk silicate Earth (BSE) but are present in near-chondritic relative abundances. The conventional explanation is that the HSEs were stripped from the mantle by the segregation of metal during core formation but were added back in near-chondritic proportions by late accretion, after core formation had ceased. Here we show that metal-silicate equilibration and segregation during Earth’s core formation actually increased HSE mantle concentrations because HSE partition coefficients are relatively low at the high pressures of core formation within Earth. The pervasive exsolution and segregation of iron sulfide liquid from silicate liquid (the “Hadean matte”) stripped magma oceans of HSEs during cooling and crystallization, before late accretion, and resulted in slightly suprachondritic palladium/iridium and ruthenium/iridium ratios.

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Refereed:	Yes
Institutions of the University:	Research Institutions > Central research institutes > Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics - BGI Research Institutions Research Institutions > Central research institutes
Result of work at the UBT:	Yes
DDC Subjects:	500 Science > 550 Earth sciences, geology
Date Deposited:	28 Apr 2017 08:43
Last Modified:	06 Jun 2024 12:04
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/36878