Neodymium bulk Earth composition

Chondritic relative abundances of strongly incompatible RLEs (lanthanum, niobium, tantalum, uranium, thorium) and their ratios to compatible RLEs in the Earth s mantle are more difficult to test. The smooth and complementary patterns of REEs in the continental crust and the residual depleted mantle are consistent with a bulk REE pattern that is flat, i.e., unfractionated when normalized to chondritic abundances. As mentioned earlier, the isotopic compositions of neodymium and hafnium are consistent with chondritic Sm/Nd and Lu/Hf ratios for bulk Earth. Most authors, however, assume that RLEs occur in chondritic relative abundances in the Earth s mantle. However, the uncertainties of RLE ratios in Cl-meteorites do exceed 10% in some cases (see Table 4) and the uncertainties of the corresponding ratios in the Earth are in same range (Jochum et ai, 1989 W eyer et ai, 2002). Minor differences (even in the percent range) in RLE ratios between the Earth and chondritic meteorites cannot be excluded, with the apparent exception of Sm/Nd and Lu/Hf ratios (Blicher-Toft and Albarede, 1997). 

A number of eclogites have both radiogenic neodymium isotopes and radiogenic strontium relative to bulk Earth. For these samples, some of the Sr/ Sr values exceed modem and Archean seawater compositions (see Chapter 6.17). Hence, in a subduction-type model, the radiogenic strontium isotopic composition of the eclogite protohth is not solely inherited from oceanic cmst but is likely to be a time-integrated response to Rb/Sr enrichment during hydrothermal alteration... 

Nd/ Nd low 8nneodymium isotopic compositions, the remarkable aspect of the frequency distribution for CLM as a whole is that the pronounced mode is within 58 units of bulk Earth and the mean 8j,jd value is 1.8. On this basis, the dominant neodymium isotopic characteristic of CLM is not enriched but is close to, or slightly more depleted than bulk Earth. Of course, if Depleted Mantle is used as a reference point then the CLM mode is enriched. The strontium isotope frequency distribution has a long tail out to very radiogenic ( enriched ) compositions but the mean Sr/ Sr is 0.7047 very close to estimates of bulk Earth. It is important to bear in mind that this statistical view of CLM geochemistry could... 

Beyond the broad major-element constraints afforded by seismic imaging, the abundance of many trace elements in the mantle clearly records the extraction of core (Chapters 2.01 and 2.15) and continental crust (Chapter 2.03). Estimates of the bulk composition of continental cmst (Volume 3) show it to be tremendously enriched compared to any estimate of the bulk Earth in certain elements that are incompatible in the minerals that make up the mantle. Because the crust contains more than its share of these elements, there must be complementary regions in the mantle depleted of these elements—and there are. The most voluminous magmatic system on Earth, the mid-ocean ridges, almost invariably erupt basalts that are depleted in the elements that are enriched in the continental crust (Chapter 2.03). Many attempts have been made to calculate the amount of mantle depleted by continent formation, but the result depends on which group of elements is used and the assumed composition of both the crust and the depleted mantle. If one uses the more enriched estimates of bulk-continent composition, the less depleted estimates for average depleted mantle, and the most incompatible elements, then the mass-balance calculations allow the whole mantle to have been depleted by continent formation. If one uses elements that are not so severely enriched in the continental cmst, for example, samarium and neodymium, then smaller volumes of depleted mantle are required in order to satisfy simultaneously the abundance of these elements in the continental cmst and the quite significant fractionation of these elements in the depleted mantle as indicated by neodymium isotope systematics. 

TrCHUR model ages The CHUR model assumes that the Earth s primitive mantle had the same isotopic composition as the average chondritic meteorite at the formation of the Earth, which in this case is taken to be 4.6 Ga. For neodymium isotopes CHUR is synonymous with the composition of the bulk Earth. A model age calculated reladve to therefore is the time in the past at which the... 

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