Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Earth science

Redox state of early magmas

Nature volume 480, pages 48–49 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

A study of cerium in zircon minerals has allowed an assessment of the redox conditions that prevailed when Earth's earliest magmas formed. The results suggest that the mantle became oxidized sooner than had been thought. See Letter p.79

A prime goal of petrologists has been to assess the redox conditions of magmas produced throughout Earth's evolution, because magmas are known to affect various major phenomena — such as the composition of volcanic emanations, which are widely believed to affect the composition of the atmosphere1. But research efforts have been hampered by the lack of rocks from the Hadean eon, which encompasses nearly the first half-billion years of Earth's existence. On page 79 of this issue, Trail et al.2 report their analysis of the sole mineral survivors of the Hadean, zircon samples more than 4 billion years old. Their findings allowed them to determine the 'fugacity' of oxygen in Hadean magmatic melts, a quantity that acts as a measure of magmatic redox conditions. Unexpectedly, the zircons record oxygen fugacities identical to those in the present-day mantle, leading the authors to conclude that Hadean volcanic gases were as highly oxidized as those emitted today.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Evolution of the redox state of Earth's mantle.

References

  1. Holland, H. D. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 66, 3811–3826 (2002).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Trail, D., Watson, E. B. & Tailby, N. D. Nature 480, 79–82 (2011).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Wood, B. J., Walter, M. J. & Wade, J. Nature 441, 825–833 (2006).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Li, Z.-X. A. & Lee, C.-T. A. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 228, 483–493 (2004).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Burgisser, A. & Scaillet, B. Nature 445, 194–197 (2007).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Gaillard, F., Scaillet, B. & Arndt, N. T. Nature 478, 229–232 (2011).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kelley, K. A. & Cottrell, E. Science 325, 605–607 (2009).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Albarède, F. Nature 461, 1227–1233 (2009).

    ADS  Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Wood, B. J., Halliday, A. N. & Rehkämper, M. Nature 467, E6–E7 (2010).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Mallmann, G. & O'Neill, H. St C. J. Petrol. 50, 1765–1794 (2009).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Scaillet, B. & Macdonald, R. J. Petrol. 42, 825–845 (2001).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Saal, A. E. et al. Nature 454, 192–195 (2008).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Frost, D. J., Mann, U., Asahara, Y. & Rubie, D. C. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 366, 4315–4337 (2008).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Carmichael, I. S. E. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 106, 129–141 (1991).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Affiliations

  1. Bruno Scaillet and Fabrice Gaillard are at the CNRS/INSU-Université d'Orléans, ISTO, UMR 6113, 1a rue de la Férollerie, 45071 Orléans, France.

    Bruno Scaillet & Fabrice Gaillard

Authors
  1. Bruno Scaillet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Fabrice Gaillard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Bruno Scaillet or Fabrice Gaillard.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Scaillet, B., Gaillard, F. Redox state of early magmas. Nature 480, 48–49 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/480048a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/480048a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing