Primitive mantle lithophile elements

More controversial (although sometimes cited as proven fact) have been claims (e.g., Taylor and Jakes, 1974 Taylor, 1982) that the bulk Moon is enriched roughly twofold in the cosmochemically refractory lithophile elements (a class that includes the REEs, the heat sources thorium and uranium, and the major elements aluminum, calcium, and titanium), and that compared to Earth s primitive mantle, the Moon s silicate mg ratio is much lower, i.e., its EeO concentration is much higher. Neither of these claims has been confirmed by recent lunar science developments, which include the advent of global thorium and samarium maps (Lawrence et al., 2002a Prettyman et al., 2002), data from lunar meteorites, and some radically changed interpretations of the Apollo seismic database. 

The two elements calcium and aluminum are RLEs. The assumption is usually made that aU RLEs are present in the primitive mantle of the Earth in chondritic proportions. Chondritic (undifferentiated) meteorites show significant variations in the absolute abundances of refractory elements but have, with few exceptions discussed below, the same relative abundances of lithophile and siderophile refractory elements. By analogy, the Earth s mantle abundances of refractory lithophile elements are assumed to occur in chondritic relative proportions in the primitive mantle, which is thus characterized by a single RLE/Mg ratio. This ratio is often normalized to the Cl-chondrite ratio and the resulting ratio, written as (RLE/Mg)N, is a measure of the concentration level of the refractory component in the Earth. A single factor of (RLE/Mg) valid for all RLEs is a basic assumption in this procedure and will be calculated from mass balance considerations. 

Figure 1 Ionic radius (in angstrom) versus ionic charge for lithophile major and trace elements in mantle sihcates. Also shown are ranges of enrichment factors in average continental crust, using the estimate of (Rudnick and Fountain, 1995), relative to the concentrations in the primitive mantle (or hulk silicate Earth ) (source McDonough and Sun, 1995).

The distribution of lithophile trace elements (REE + mbidium, caesium, strontium, barium, yttrium, zirconium, hafnium, niobium, tantalum, thorium, and uranium) normalized to primitive mantle (PM) values are illustrated in Figure 16 for a range of peridotite lithologies from the Ronda orogenic Iherzolite massif, and in Figure 17 for ophiolitic and abyssal refractory peridotites. 

Developing a model for the composition of the Earth and its major reservoirs can be established in a four-step process. The first involves estimating the composition of the silicate Earth (or primitive mantle, which includes the crust plus mantle after core formation). The second step involves defining a volatility curve for the planet, based on the abundances of the moderately volatile and highly volatile lithophile elements in the silicate Earth, assuming that none have been sequestered into the core (i.e., they are truly lithophile). The third step entails calculating a bulk Earth composition using the planetary volatility curve established in step two, chemical data for chondrites, and... 

Figure 4 The relative abundances of the lithophile elements in the primitive mantle (or silicate Earth) plotted versus the log of the 50% condensation temperature (K) at 10 atm pressure. The relative abundances of the lithophile elements are reported as normalized to Cl carbonaceous chondrite on an equal basis of Mg content. The planetary volatility trend (negative sloping shaded region enclosing the lower temperature elements) establishes integrated flux of volatile elements at 1 AU. Data for condensation temperatures are from Wasson (1985) chemical data for the chondrites are from Wasson and Kelleme3m (1988) and for the Earth are from Table 2.

A compositional model for the primitive mantle and bulk Earth is described above, which indirectly prescribes a core composition, although it does not identify the proportion of siderophile and chalcophile elements in the core and mantle. The mantle abundance pattern for the lithophile elements shown in Figure 4 provides a reference... 

Normalized incompatible trace element diagrams are shown in Figure 4. The basalts of the Belingwe belt are generally characterized by flat incompatible element patterns (1.7-4,6x primitive mantle) with marked enrichment of Th (28.3x) and Sr (8.2x). The komatiitic basalts show comparable patterns to those of the basalts but with spiked large ion lithophile element... 

The inclusion of the subjects covered in Volume 1 of this Treatise illustrates the recognition that one critical avenue to understanding geo chemistry is to understand the solar environment in which Earth formed. Chapter 2.01 of this volume compares the composition of Earth with that of various primitive meteorite classes and with the spectroscopically determined composition of the Sun. Chemical variability in these meteorites reflects primarily two processes (i) volatility and (u) affinity for metal (the so-called siderophile elements) over silicate (lithophile elements). Perhaps the most surprising outcome of this comparison is that Earth s mantle has a bulk composition that is close to solar, at least for refractory lithophile elements. As detailed in Chapter 2.01, the mantle s most obvious departures from solar composition are its deficiencies in volatile and siderophile elements. The latter is easily understood in that Earth has a large metallic core that extracted the missing siderophile elements from the mantle (Chapter 2.15). 

As refractory lithophile elements, the REE play an important role in constraining the overall composition and history of the silicate fraction of planets, which for the terrestrial planets is also termed their primitive mantle (equivalent to the present-day crust plus mantle). Since there is no evidence for significant planetary-scale fractionation of refractory elements during the assembly and differentiation of planetary bodies, it is widely accepted that the primitive mantles of terrestrial planets and moon possess chondritic proportions of the REE. As such, the absolute concentrations of REE (and other refractory elements) in primitive mantles provide an important constraint on the proportions of volatile elements to refractory elements and on the oxidation state (i.e., metal/silicate ratio) of the body. To date, the only major planetary bodies for which REE data are directly available are the Earth, Moon, and Mars, and Taylor and McLennan" recently reviewed these data. 

---