Abstract
Following its subduction, oceanic crust either contributes to the source of island-arc volcanic rocks or it is recycled into the mantle1. Most2,3, but not all authors4 believe that recycled crust is incorporated into the plume source of oceanic basalts. The hafnium (Hf) and neodymium (Nd) isotopic compositions of basalts from oceanic islands and mid-ocean ridges exhibit a linear relationship—the mantle array—which is thought to result from mixing between material from the depleted mantle and an enriched recycled component. Here, we model the Hf–Nd isotopic composition of oceanic basalts as a mixture of recycled oceanic crust and depleted mantle and find that recycling of basalt alone is not sufficient to reproduce the mantle array. We conclude that oceanic sediments, which have a relatively high 176Hf/177Hf ratio, must also be recycled. Combining oceanic sediments with recycled oceanic basalts and subsequent mixing with depleted mantle peridotite produces Hf and Nd isotopic compositions that coincide with the mantle array. The composition of bulk continental crust requires the existence of a complementary low 176Hf/177Hf reservoir, which we suggest is zircon-rich sediment.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kellogg, L. H., Hager, B. H. & van der Hilst, R. D. Compositional stratification in the deep mantle. Science 283, 1881–1884 (1999).
Hofmann, A. W. & White, W. M. Mantle plumes from ancient oceanic crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 57, 421–436 (1982).
Kelley, K. A., Plank, T., Farr, L., Ludden, J. & Staudigel, H. Subduction cycling of U, Th, and Pb. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 234, 369 (2005).
Niu, Y. & O’Hara, M. J. Origin of ocean island basalts: A new perspective from petrology, geochemistry, and mineral physics considerations. J. Geophys. Res. 108, 2209 (2003).
Blichert-Toft, J. & Albarède, F. The Lu–Hf isotope geochemistry of chondrites and the evolution of the mantle-crust system. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 148, 243–258 (1997).
Bouvier, A., Vervoort, J. D. & Patchett, P. J. The Lu–Hf CHUR value. Goldschmidt Conf. Abstracts 2007 A116 (2007).
van de Flierdt, T. et al. Global neodymium-hafnium isotope systematics—revisited. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 259, 432 (2007).
Plank, T. & Langmuir, C. H. The chemical composition of subducting sediment and its consequences for the crust and mantle. Chem. Geol. 145, 325–394 (1998).
Carpentier, M., Chauvel, C. & Mattielli, N. Strong relationship between Hf–Nd–Pb isotopes in atlantic sediments and the Lesser Antilles arc composition. Eos Trans. AGU 87, 52 Fall Meeting Suppl., Abstract U21A-0804 (2006).
Godfrey, L. V. et al. The Hf isotopic composition of ferromanganese nodules and crusts and hydrothermal manganese deposits: Implications for seawater Hf. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 151, 91–105 (1997).
Albarède, F., Simonetti, A., Vervoort, J. D., Blichert-Toft, J. & Abouchami, W. A Hf–Nd isotopic correlation in ferromanganese nodules. Geophys. Res. Lett. 25, 3895–3898 (1998).
Plank, T., Kelley, K. A., Murray, R. W. & Quintin Stern, L. Chemical composition of sediments subducting at the Izu-Bonin trench. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 8, Q04I16 (2007).
Chauvel, C., Lewin, E., Carpentier, M. & Marini, J.-C. Recycled oceanic material controls the Hf–Nd OIB array. Eos Trans. AGU 87, 52 Fall Meeting Suppl., Abstract U14B-07 (2006).
Patchett, P. J., White, W. M., Feldmann, H., Kielinczuck, S. & Hofmann, A. W. Hafnium/rare earth element fractionation in the sedimentary system and crustal recycling into the Earth’s mantle. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 69, 365–378 (1984).
Salters, V. J. M. & White, W. M. Hf isotope constraints on mantle evolution. Chem. Geol. 145, 447–460 (1998).
Hofmann, A. W. Chemical differentiation of the Earth: The relationship between mantle, continental crust and oceanic crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 90, 297–314 (1988).
Su, Y. J. Mid-ocean Ridge Basalt Trace Element Systematics: Constraints From Database Management, ICP-MS Analyses, Global Data Compilation and Petrologic Modeling. Thesis, Columbia Univ., 472pp (2002).
Vervoort, J. D., Patchett, P. J., Blichert-Toft, J. & Albarède, F. Relationships between Lu–Hf and Sm–Nd isotopic systems in the global sedimentary system. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 168, 79–99 (1999).
Taylor, S. R. & McLennan, S. M. The Continental Crust: Its Composition and Evolution (Blackwell Scientific, Oxford, 1985).
Richards, A. et al. Himalayan architecture constrained by isotopic tracers from clastic sediments. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 236, 773–796 (2005).
Ben Othman, D., White, W. M. & Patchett, J. The geochemistry of marine sediments, island arc magma genesis, and crust-mantle recycling. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 94, 1–21 (1989).
McLennan, S. M., Taylor, S. R., Culloch, M. T. M. & Maynard, J. B. Geochemical and Nd-Sr isotopic composition of deep-sea turbidites: Crustal evolution and plate tectonic associations. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 54, 2015–2050 (1990).
White, W. M., Dupré, B. & Vidal, P. Isotope and trace element geochemistry of sediments from the Barbados Ridge-Demera Plain region, Atlantic Ocean. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 49, 1875–1886 (1985).
Pearce, J. A., Kempton, P. D., Nowell, G. M. & Noble, S. R. Hf–Nd element and isotope perspective on the nature and provenance of mantle and subduction components in Western Pacific arc-basin systems. J. Petrol. 40, 1579–1611 (1999).
Woodhead, J. D., Hergt, J. M., Davidson, J. P. & Eggins, S. M. Hafnium isotope evidence for ‘conservative’ element mobility during subduction zone processes. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 192, 331–346 (2001).
David, K., O’Nions, R. K., Belshaw, N. S. & Arden, J. W. The Hf isotope composition of global seawater and the evolution of Hf isotopes in the deep Pacific Ocean from Fe–Mn crusts. Chem. Geol. 178, 23–42 (2001).
Vlastelic, I., Carpentier, M. & Lewin, E. Miocene climate change recorded in the chemical and isotopic (Pb, Nd, Hf) signature of Southern Ocean sediments. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 6, Q03003 (2005).
Jacobsen, S. B. & Wasserburg, G. J. Sm-Nd isotopic evolution of chondrites and achondrites. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 67, 137–150 (1984).
McLennan, S. M. Relationships between the trace element composition of sedimentary rocks and upper continental crust. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 2, 2000GC000109 (2001).
Gallet, S., Jahn, B.-M., Lanoë, B. V. V., Dia, A. & Rossello, E. Loess geochemistry and its implications for particle origin and composition of the upper continental crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 156, 157–172 (1998).
Acknowledgements
We thank A.W. Hofmann for his suggestions that helped improve the manuscript. The work was supported by grants from ‘Dyeti’ CNRS program and ANR in France.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
C.C. conceived the model and wrote the paper. E.L. made the numerical simulation. M.C. and J.-C.M. contributed to the data compilation and N.T.A. suggested several important ideas. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information, Fig. S1
Supplementary figure S1 (PDF 45 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chauvel, C., Lewin, E., Carpentier, M. et al. Role of recycled oceanic basalt and sediment in generating the Hf–Nd mantle array. Nature Geosci 1, 64–67 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo.2007.51
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo.2007.51
This article is cited by
-
Earth’s evolving geodynamic regime recorded by titanium isotopes
Nature (2023)
-
Earth’s mantle composition revealed by mantle plumes
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2023)
-
Metallogenetic model of Jiaodong-type gold deposits, eastern China
Science China Earth Sciences (2023)
-
Generation of ultraslow-spreading oceanic crust traced by various mafic blocks from ophiolitic mélange in the Xigaze Ophiolites, southern Tibet
Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology (2023)
-
Mo endowment of porphyry deposits in the southern margin of the North China Craton controlled by magmatic water content
Mineralium Deposita (2023)