Preservation of Earth-forming events in the W isotopic 1 composition of modern flood basalts

• Main Authors: Rizo, Hanika, Walker, Richard J., Carlson, Richard W., Horan, Mary F., Mukhopadhyay, Sujoy, Manthos, Vicky, Francis, Don, Jackson, Matthew G.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Science Magazine 2016
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1903/32578; https://doi.org/10.13016/i7vq-1owc

How much of Earth's compositional variation dates to processes that occurred during planet formation remains an unanswered question. High-precision tungsten isotopic data from rocks from two large igneous provinces, the North Atlantic Igneous Province and the Ontong Java Plateau, reveal preservation to the Phanerozoic of tungsten isotopic heterogeneities in the mantle. These heterogeneities, caused by the decay of hafnium-182 in mantle domains with high hafnium/tungsten ratios, were created during the first ~50 million years of solar system history, indicating that portions of the mantle that formed during Earth’s primary accretionary period have survived to the present. NSF grant EAR-1265169 NSF grant EAR-1250419 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aad8563