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Highest terrestrial 3He/4He credibly from the core

Nature volume 623, pages 90–94 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The observation that many lavas associated with mantle plumes have higher 3He/4He ratios than the upper convecting mantle underpins geophysical, geodynamic and geochemical models of Earth’s deep interior. High 3He/4He ratios are thought to derive from the solar nebula or from solar-wind-irradiated material that became incorporated into Earth during early planetary accretion. Traditionally, this high-3He/4He component has been considered intrinsic to the mantle, having avoided outgassing caused by giant impacts and billions of years of mantle convection1,2,3,4. Here we report the highest magmatic 3He/4He ratio(67.2 ± 1.8 times the atmospheric ratio) yet measured in terrestrial igneous rocks, in olivines from Baffin Island lavas. We argue that the extremely high-3He/4He helium in these lavas might derive from Earth’s core5,6,7,8,9. The viability of the core hypothesis relaxes the long-standing constraint—based on noble gases in lavas associated with mantle plumes globally—that volatile elements from the solar nebula have survived in the mantle since the early stages of accretion.

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Fig. 1: Reproducible 3He/4He results.
Fig. 2: Radiogenic 4He ingrowth models.
Fig. 3: Schematic illustration of core-to-plume transfer.

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Data availability

All data are available in the paper, the supplementary materials and on EarthChem (https://doi.org/10.26022/IEDA/112776).

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Acknowledgements

M. Mahy of Parks Canada Nunavut Field Unit assisted with fieldwork planning. V. Hooten performed mineral separation. N. Chatterjee carried out electron microprobe analyses. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (award number 1911699). The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Endowed Fund for Innovative Research and a National Geographic Society grant (CP4-144R-18) supported fieldwork activities.

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  1. J. A. Biasi

    Present address: Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geology and Geophysics Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, USA

    F. Horton, J. Curtice, M. D. Kurz & J. Blusztajn

  2. Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    P. D. Asimow, K. A. Farley, J. A. Biasi & X. M. Boyes

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Contributions

F.H.: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—original draft, visualization, supervision, and funding acquisition. P.D.A.: conceptualization, investigation, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition. K.A.F.: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision, and funding acquisition. J.C.: methodology and investigation. M.D.K.: resources, methodology, writing—review and editing, and supervision. J.B.: methodology, investigation, resources, writing—review and editing. J.A.B.: investigation. X.M.B.: formal analysis and investigation.

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Correspondence to F. Horton.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 3He/4He as a function of 4He/g.

Most fusion analyses yielded low 3He/4He ratios and high He abundances, which is consistent with the presence of radiogenic 4He in the matrix of the olivines. The highest gas yields during crushing were for samples with abundant olivine-hosted fluid inclusions and have 3He/4He of 40–50 Ra. Error bars (1 s.d.) are shown where uncertainty is larger than the symbols.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Primordial and depleted mantle mixing models.

Binary mixtures of depleted mid-ocean ridge basalt mantle (DMM) and primitive mantle (PM) of bulk silicate Earth composition cannot explain the isotopic compositions of the lava flow with the highest reproducible 3He/4He (RB18-H2), which we assume represents the highest 3He/4He mantle component in Baffin Island lavas. Plausible compositions are bracketed by depleted (D-DMM), average (A-DMM), and enriched (DMM) endmembers. Corresponding segments of two mixing lines are thickened to highlight this discrepancy. Each endmember and the Baffin Island data are corrected for radiogenic ingrowth of Sr, Nd, and Pb since 61 Ma. See Methods for details.

Extended Data Fig. 3 RB18-H2 sampling site.

Before (A) and after (B) photograph montages of the sampling site for samples RB18-H2_0, RB18-H2_50, and RB18-H2_100. All three samples are from the base of the flow, which is greater than 4 m thick. RB18-H2_50 and RB18-H2_100 were sampled 50 cm and 100 cm above the base of the flow, respectively. All three samples are from minimally weathered surfaces beneath an overhang, where they were shielded from cosmic rays. In these images, the lighter portion of the outcrop is dry because it is beneath the overhang and therefore less exposed to rainwater. Dashed white lines indicate the approximate location of each sample. See the 6 lb. hammer for scale.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Helium yields from crushing experiments.

In most cases, He yields decreased over time during Caltech (A) and WHOI (B) step crushing experiments. Because the automated crushing intervals and numbers of strokes per extraction varied among experiments, the He yields are normalized to mass and minutes of crushing in panel (A) and to mass and crushing strokes in panel (B). Tie lines connect individual measurements for single mineral separates. Anomalous experiments for which 4He increased over time are labeled. 3He/4He changes across crushing steps were less systematic, but mostly stayed relatively constant or decreased over time at Caltech (C) and WHOI (B). The 3He/4He decreases were most pronounced at Caltech.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Olivine zoning.

Mg#, Ni, and Cr increase from rim to core in Baffin Island olivines. In spinel-rich olivine cores, the abundance of these elements extends to higher levels (Mg# > 87.5, Ni > 4.5 wt%, and Cr > 0.14 wt% in most grains) than in fluid inclusion-rich olivine rims. Mn profiles exhibit the opposite trend and zoning is less systematic with respect to Al and Ca. The two olivine populations—spinel-rich and fluid inclusion-rich—have overlapping Mg#, Ni, and Cr that are offset to lower values for fluid inclusion-rich grains by ~1, 0.5 wt%, and 0.2 wt%, respectively. Shown here are representative electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA) transects across a fluid inclusion-rich olivine (A and C) and a spinel-rich olivine (B and D). Both olivines are from sample PING18-H2. In A and B, backscatter electron images show the location of EPMA transects and the distribution of inclusions on the polished surface of the grain. In A, most inclusions are fluid inclusions (black). In B, the olivine has large spinel inclusions in its core (white) and some fluid inclusions (black). In both grains, the Mg# (100 × MgO / [MgO + FeO]) is greatest in the core and decreases towards the rim. Spinel-bearing olivines have higher Mg# in their cores than fluid inclusion-rich olivines without spinel. Some grains have spinel cores overgrown by lower Mg# rims that contain fluid inclusions. Complete EPMA data are available in SI Table 3.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Olivine compositions.

Fluid inclusion-rich and spinel-rich olivine grains have overlapping compositions. In general, Mg#, NiO, and CrO are higher for spinel-rich olivines domains.

Extended Data Table 1 Reproducible 3He/4He crushing results
Full size table

Supplementary information

Supplementary Tables

Supplementary Table 1: Complete helium isotope results for crushing and fusion experiments on Baffin Island olivine mineral separates. Supplementary Table 2: Measured whole-rock radiogenic isotopic ratios (206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, 206Pb/204Pb, 87Sr/86Sr and 143Nd/144Nd) for Baffin Island lavas. Supplementary Table 3: Electron probe microanalyser results for transects across olivines from Baffin Island lava sample PING18-H2.

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Horton, F., Asimow, P.D., Farley, K.A. et al. Highest terrestrial 3He/4He credibly from the core. Nature 623, 90–94 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06590-8

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