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Extensive crustal extraction in Earth’s early history inferred from molybdenum isotopes

Nature Geoscience volume 12, pages 946–951 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Estimates of the volume of the earliest crust based on zircon ages and radiogenic isotopes remain equivocal. Stable isotope systems, such as molybdenum, have the potential to provide further constraints but remain underused due to the lack of complementarity between mantle and crustal reservoirs. Here we present molybdenum isotope data for Archaean komatiites and Phanerozoic komatiites and picrites and demonstrate that their mantle sources all possess subchondritic signatures complementary to the superchondritic continental crust. These results confirm that the present-day degree of mantle depletion was achieved by 3.5 billion years ago and that Earth has been in a steady state with respect to molybdenum recycling. Mass balance modelling shows that this early mantle depletion requires the extraction of a far greater volume of mafic-dominated protocrust than previously thought, more than twice the volume of the continental crust today, implying rapid crustal growth and destruction in the first billion years of Earth’s history.

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Fig. 1: Variation of δ98Mo in komatiites, picrites and major mantle and crustal reservoirs.
Fig. 2: Schematic Mo evolution of Earth’s mantle and crust during planetary differentiation.
Fig. 3: Partial-melting model showing that the degree of enrichment of heavy Mo isotopes in the melt phase is controlled by both temperature and the valance state of Mo.
Fig. 4: Results of Mo isotope mass balance calculations that estimate the mass of crust extraction required to balance the composition of the depleted mantle.

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All data generated during this study are included in the published article and its supplementary information files.

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Acknowledgements

We thank D. Selby for access to carius tube facilities. This project was funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant (‘HabitablePlanet’ 306655) to H.M.W. and a NERC Grant (NE/M0003/1) to K.W.B. While at Monash A.J.M.-W., P.C. and P.A.C. were supported by ARC grant FL160100168.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Alex J. McCoy-West, Kevin W. Burton, Geoff M. Nowell & Helen M. Williams

  2. School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia

    Alex J. McCoy-West, Priyadarshi Chowdhury & Peter A. Cawood

  3. Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Paolo Sossi

  4. School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

    J. Godfrey Fitton

  5. School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Andrew C. Kerr

  6. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Helen M. Williams

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Contributions

A.J.M.-W., K.W.B. and H.M.W. conceived the study. A.J.M.-W. undertook the chemistry and mass spectrometry with assistance from G.M.N. J.G.F., A.C.K. and P.S. provided the samples. A.J.M.-W. and P.C. developed the mass balance modelling. A.M.W. and P.S. developed the Mo isotope partial melting model. A.J.M.-W. wrote the paper, while all the authors contributed to discussions on early crustal volumes and editing the paper.

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Correspondence to Alex J. McCoy-West.

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McCoy-West, A.J., Chowdhury, P., Burton, K.W. et al. Extensive crustal extraction in Earth’s early history inferred from molybdenum isotopes. Nat. Geosci. 12, 946–951 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0451-2

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