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Nickel and helium evidence for melt above the core–mantle boundary

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Abstract

High 3He/4He ratios in some basalts have generally been interpreted as originating in an incompletely degassed lower-mantle source1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. This helium source may have been isolated at the core–mantle boundary region since Earth’s accretion4,5,6. Alternatively, it may have taken part in whole-mantle convection and crust production over the age of the Earth7,8,9; if so, it is now either a primitive refugium at the core–mantle boundary8 or is distributed throughout the lower mantle7,9. Here we constrain the problem using lavas from Baffin Island, West Greenland, the Ontong Java Plateau, Isla Gorgona and Fernandina (Galapagos). Olivine phenocryst compositions show that these lavas originated from a peridotite source that was about 20 per cent higher in nickel content than in the modern mid-ocean-ridge basalt source. Where data are available, these lavas also have high 3He/4He. We propose that a less-degassed nickel-rich source formed by core–mantle interaction during the crystallization of a melt-rich layer or basal magma ocean5,6, and that this source continues to be sampled by mantle plumes. The spatial distribution of this source may be constrained by nickel partitioning experiments at the pressures of the core–mantle boundary.

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Figure 1: Mg-numbers and Ni content for calculated 13 and observed olivine.
Figure 2: Mg-numbers and Ca, Mn and Fe/Mn contents for calculated 13 and observed olivine phenocrysts from MORBs (right panels) compared with Baffin Island and West Greenland 14 (left panels).
Figure 3: Mg-numbers and Ni contents for calculated olivine 13 and observed olivine phenocrysts.

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Acknowledgements

C.H. thanks L. Larsen, M. Portnyagin, A. Sobolev and D. Walker for discussions. We are very grateful to R. Walker for a critical review. D.A.I. acknowledges PNP grants from the French INSU-CNRS in 2010-2012 and P.D.A. acknowledges NSF grant EAR-1119522. P.D.A. thanks A. Matzen for extended discussions. D.G.’s work is funded by NSF grant EAR1145271.

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Contributions

C.H. modelled olivine compositions and developed a variety of magma ocean and core–mantle interaction interpretations. P.D.A. suggested the core–mantle interaction model in its current form and critiqued all Ni partition models. D.A.I. provided high-precision olivine and whole-rock analyses for mantle peridotite. C.V. acquired high-precision olivine data for Fernandina (Galapagos). M.G.J. provided information on Pb, Nd and He isotopes. D.G. provided rock samples from Fernandina. All authors contributed to the intellectual growth of this paper.

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Correspondence to Claude Herzberg.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Text, Supplementary Figures 1-12 and Supplementary References. (PDF 18259 kb)

Supplementary Data

This file contains Supplementary Table 1, which contains High Precision Olivine Analyses for Peridotites. (XLS 62 kb)

Supplementary Data

This file contains Supplementary Table 2, which contains Olivine Analyses from Fernandina. (XLS 66 kb)

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Herzberg, C., Asimow, P., Ionov, D. et al. Nickel and helium evidence for melt above the core–mantle boundary. Nature 493, 393–397 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11771

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