Evidence against a chondritic Earth

Ian H. Campbell; Hugh St C. O'Neill

doi:10.1038/nature10901

Evidence against a chondritic Earth

Ian H. Campbell^*, Hugh St C. O'Neill

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

102 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The ¹⁴²Nd/ ¹⁴⁴ Nd ratio of the Earth is greater than the solar ratio as inferred from chondritic meteorites, which challenges a fundamental assumption of modern geochemistry-that the composition of the silicate Earth is chondritic', meaning that it has refractory element ratios identical to those found in chondrites. The popular explanation for this and other paradoxes of mantle geochemistry, a hidden layer deep in the mantle enriched in incompatible elements, is inconsistent with the heat flux carried by mantle plumes. Either the matter from which the Earth formed was not chondritic, or the Earth has lost matter by collisional erosion in the later stages of planet formation.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	553-558
Number of pages	6
Journal	Nature
Volume	483
Issue number	7391
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10901
Publication status	Published - 29 Mar 2012

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10.1038/nature10901

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abstract = "The 142Nd/ 144 Nd ratio of the Earth is greater than the solar ratio as inferred from chondritic meteorites, which challenges a fundamental assumption of modern geochemistry-that the composition of the silicate Earth is chondritic', meaning that it has refractory element ratios identical to those found in chondrites. The popular explanation for this and other paradoxes of mantle geochemistry, a hidden layer deep in the mantle enriched in incompatible elements, is inconsistent with the heat flux carried by mantle plumes. Either the matter from which the Earth formed was not chondritic, or the Earth has lost matter by collisional erosion in the later stages of planet formation.",

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AB - The 142Nd/ 144 Nd ratio of the Earth is greater than the solar ratio as inferred from chondritic meteorites, which challenges a fundamental assumption of modern geochemistry-that the composition of the silicate Earth is chondritic', meaning that it has refractory element ratios identical to those found in chondrites. The popular explanation for this and other paradoxes of mantle geochemistry, a hidden layer deep in the mantle enriched in incompatible elements, is inconsistent with the heat flux carried by mantle plumes. Either the matter from which the Earth formed was not chondritic, or the Earth has lost matter by collisional erosion in the later stages of planet formation.

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Evidence against a chondritic Earth

Abstract

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