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Geochemistry

A dash of deep nebula on the rocks

Nature volume 486, pages 40–41 (2012)Cite this article

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The cocktail of noble-gas isotopes in an Icelandic rock suggests that the upper mantle does not, and never did, receive gas from a deeper mantle reservoir. This challenges ideas of deep Earth's behaviour and formation. See Letter p.101

The pattern of isotopic abundances of inert and rare noble gases, trapped in small bubbles in volcanic rock, act as a 'fingerprint' of how and where our planet first acquired its gas. Furthermore, the type of volcanic setting, and the way that parts of the fingerprint change with time, offer insight into the workings of deep Earth. Squeezing out this information from lava derived from the deepest parts of our planet — possibly some 2,900 kilometres beneath our feet — is a challenge. Yet this is precisely what S. Mukhopadhyay1 has done, and in spectacular fashion. On page 101 of this issue, he reports the long-awaited detailed secrets of the planet's deepest gases, based on an isotope analysis performed using a new-generation mass spectrometer.

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Figure 1: Mantle movement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chris J. Ballentine is at the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.,

    Chris J. Ballentine

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  1. Chris J. Ballentine
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Correspondence to Chris J. Ballentine.

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Ballentine, C. A dash of deep nebula on the rocks. Nature 486, 40–41 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/486040a

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