RESUMO
Although Earth has a convecting mantle, ancient mantle reservoirs that formed within the first 100 Ma of Earth's history (Hadean Eon) appear to have been preserved through geologic time. Evidence for this is based on small anomalies of isotopes such as 182W, 142Nd, and 129Xe that are decay products of short-lived nuclide systems. Studies of such short-lived isotopes have typically focused on geological units with a limited age range and therefore only provide snapshots of regional mantle heterogeneities. Here we present a dataset for short-lived 182Hf-182W (half-life 9 Ma) in a comprehensive rock suite from the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. The samples analyzed preserve a unique geological archive covering 800 Ma of Archean history. Pristine 182W signatures that directly reflect the W isotopic composition of parental sources are only preserved in unaltered mafic samples with near canonical W/Th (0.07 to 0.26). Early Paleoarchean, mafic igneous rocks from the East Pilbara Terrane display a uniform pristine µ182W excess of 12.6 ± 1.4 ppm. From ca 3.3Ga onward, the pristine 182W signatures progressively vanish and are only preserved in younger rocks of the craton that tap stabilized ancient lithosphere. Given that the anomalous 182W signature must have formed by ca 4.5 Ga, the mantle domain that was tapped by magmatism in the Pilbara Craton must have been convectively isolated for nearly 1.2 Ga. This finding puts lower bounds on timescale estimates for localized convective homogenization in early Earth's interior and on the widespread emergence of plate tectonics that are both important input parameters in many physical models.
RESUMO
The accretion of volatile-rich material from the outer Solar System represents a crucial prerequisite for Earth to develop oceans and become a habitable planet1-4. However, the timing of this accretion remains controversial5-8. It has been proposed that volatile elements were added to Earth by the late accretion of a late veneer consisting of carbonaceous-chondrite-like material after core formation had ceased6,9,10. This view could not be reconciled with the ruthenium (Ru) isotope composition of carbonaceous chondrites5,11, which is distinct from that of the modern mantle12, or of any known meteorite group5. As a possible solution, Earth's pre-late-veneer mantle could already have contained a fraction of Ru that was not fully extracted by core formation13. The presence of such pre-late-veneer Ru can only be established if its isotope composition is distinct from that of the modern mantle. Here we report the first high-precision, mass-independent Ru isotope compositions for Eoarchaean ultramafic rocks from southwest Greenland, which display a relative 100Ru excess of 22 parts per million compared with the modern mantle value. This 100Ru excess indicates that the source of the Eoarchaean rocks already contained a substantial fraction of Ru before the accretion of the late veneer. By 3.7 billion years ago, the mantle beneath southwest Greenland had not yet fully equilibrated with late accreted material. Otherwise, no Ru isotopic difference relative to the modern mantle would be observed. If constraints from other highly siderophile elements besides Ru are also considered14, the composition of the modern mantle can only be reconciled if the late veneer contained substantial amounts of carbonaceous-chondrite-like materials with their characteristic 100Ru deficits. These data therefore relax previous constraints on the late veneer and are consistent with volatile-rich material from the outer Solar System being delivered to Earth during late accretion.
