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Geochemistry

The lost continents

Nature volume 448, pages 655–656 (2007)Cite this article

Once subducted into the mantle, material from Earth's continental crust seems to disappear. But its distinctive isotopic signature has been found back at the surface — in volcanic rocks on a Pacific island.

But what happens to the continental material after that? Does convection in the mantle stir it around so that it loses its distinctive identity? Or does at least some of it reappear in volcanic rocks formed at ocean ridges or at isolated 'hotspots' of volcanic extrusion under the sea? Jackson et al.2 (page 684 of this issue) have found what might be a 'smoking gun' for the second option. In unprecedented studies of the isotopic and trace-element compositions of basalts dredged from the flanks of a Samoan island, they find almost unequivocal evidence for traces of recycled ancient continental crust in extruded volcanic rocks.

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Figure 1: Adopting continental values.

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  1. Albrecht W. Hofmann is at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Postfach 3060, 55020 Mainz, Germany. hofmann@mpch-mainz.mpg.de,

    Albrecht W. Hofmann

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  1. Albrecht W. Hofmann
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Hofmann, A. The lost continents. Nature 448, 655–656 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/448655a

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