Primitive mantle

The analysis of fractionation law exponents quantifies the impression from the A -5 plots that aqueous Mg is related to primitive mantle and average crustal Mg by kinetic processes while carbonates precipitated from waters approach isotopic equilibrium with aqueous Mg. In any case, the positive A Mg values of carbonates relative to the primitive chondrite/mantle reservoir and crust is a robust feature of the data and requires a component of kinetic Mg isotope fractionation prior to carbonate formation, as illustrated schematically in Figure 3. 

Poreda RJ, Craig H (1992) He and Sr isotopes in the Lau Basin mantle Depleted and primitive mantle components. Earth Planet Sci Lett 113 487-493... 

Fig. 2. Representative primitive mantle-normalized diagrams for samples from the Baguio District. Normalising values of Sun and MacDonough (1989).

Fig. 1. Primitive mantle (PM) normalized whole rock PGE profiles for stratiform chromitites from the Stillwater Complex and for podiform chromitites from the mantle section of Thetford Mines Ophiolite (TMO). Note the similarity between IPGE contents of chromitites from these different tectonic settings. D.L.= detection limit.

Fig. 4. Representative primitive mantle normalised trace element patterns of metavolcanic rocks structurally above and below VMS mineralisation. Normalising values are from Sun and McDonough (1989).

Fig. 3. Representative primitive mantle normalised plots for rock units.

The primitive mantle-normalized trace-element spider diagram of felsic rocks shows negative Sr and Eu anomalies that are indicative of either plagioclase restite or plagioclase fractionation resulting from a combination of the partial melting and fractional crystallization processes (Fig. 5), and later changed by hydrothermal alteration. 

Primitive mantle-normalized data show negative Eu and Sr in the feisic volcanic rocks. These negative anomalies are attributed to plagioclase fractionation and/or feldspar destructive hydrothermal alteration and removal of Eu during deposit formation. 

Since boron concentrations in mantle minerals are exceedingly low, boron isotope analysis of mantle minerals are very restricted. On the basis of a boron budget between mantle and crust, Chaussidon and Marty (1995) conclnded that the primitive mantle had a 5 B-value of-10 2%c.ForMORB Spivack and Edmond (1987) and Chaussidon and Marty (1995) reported a 5 B-value of aronnd -4%c. Higher and lower 5 B-values observed in some ocean island basalts shonld be due to crustal assimilation (Tanaka and Nakamura 2005). 

Major-element compositions (weight ratios of Mg/Si and Al/Si) for mantle rocks (peridotites) and estimates of the primitive mantle composition of the Earth compared with various groups of chondrites and the Sun. No mixture of chondrite types provides an exact match to the primitive mantle composition, although some carbonaceous chondrites provide the closest match. Modified from Righter et al. (2006). 

Efforts have been made to determine the compositions of both the primitive mantle and depleted materials in the modern mantle. In the approach of Palme and O Neill (2004), the estimated chemistry of the primitive mantle was determined by subtracting the likely elemental concentrations of the Earth s core from results on the bulk chemistry of the Earth. The chemistry of the bulk Earth may be derived from chemical data on Cl chondrite meteorites, spectrographs of the Sun, and/or analyses of upper mantle rocks. Based on the chemical properties of an element, assumptions can be made on how much of the element was likely to have accumulated in the core. On the basis of this approach, Palme and O Neill (2004, 14) concluded that the arsenic concentration of the primitive mantle was 0.066 0.046 mg kg-1 (Table 3.3). 

With these caveats, one can deduce the following. Early single grains appear to have recorded hafnium isotopic compositions that provide evidence for chondritic or enriched reservoirs. There is no evidence of depleted reservoirs in the earliest (Hadean) zircons dated thus far (Amelin et al., 1999). Use of alternative values for the decay constants or values for the primitive mantle parameters increases the proportion of hafnium with an enriched signature (Amelin et al., 2000), but does not provide evidence for early mantle depletion events. Therefore, there is little doubt that the Hadean mantle was extremely well mixed. Why this should be is unclear, but it probably relates in some way to the lack of preserved continental material from prior to 4.0 Ga. 

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 COMPOSITION OF THE PRIMITIVE MANTLE BASED ON THE ANALYSIS OF UPPER MANTLE ROCKS... 

Major element composition of the Earth s primitive mantle... 

The least fractionated rocks of the Earth are those that have only suffered core formation but have not been affected by the extraction of partial melts during crust formation. These rocks should have the composition of the PM, i.e., the mantle before the onset of crust formation. Such rocks are typically high in MgO and low in AI2O3, CaO, Ti02, and other elements incompatible with mantle minerals. Fortunately, it is possible to collect samples on the surface of the Earth with compositions that closely resemble the composition of the primitive mantle. Such samples are not known from the surfaces of Moon, Mars, and the asteroid Vesta. It is, therefore, much more difficult to reconstruct the bulk composition of Moon, Mars, and Vesta based on the analyses of samples available from these bodies. 

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. 

The late veneer hypothesis has gained additional support from the analyses of the osmium isotopic composition of mantle rocks. Meisel et al. (1996) determined the Os/ Os ratios of a suite of mantle xenoliths. Since rhenium is more incompatible during mantle partial melting than osmium, the Re/Os ratio in the mantle residue is lower and in the melt higher than the PM ratio. By extrapolating observed trends of Os/ Os versus AI2O3 and lutetium, two proxies for rhenium, Meisel et al. (1996) determined a Os/ Os ratio of 0.1296 0.0008 for the primitive mantle. This ratio is 2.7% above that of carbonaceous... 

Mass Fractions of Depleted and Primitive Mantle Reservoirs... 

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).

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