A new analysis of rocks thought to be at least 2.5 billion years old helps clarify the chemical history of Earth's mantle -- the geologic layer beneath the planet's crust.
New study supports stable mantle chemistry dating back to Earth's early geologic history and over its prodigious evolutionA new analysis of rocks thought to be at least 2.5 billion years old helps clarify the chemical history of Earth's mantle -- the geologic layer beneath the planet's crust. The findings hone scientists' understanding of Earth's earliest geologic processes, and they provide new evidence in a decades-long scientific debate about the geologic history of Earth.
The research team -- including lead study author Suzanne Birner who completed a pre-doctoral fellowship at the National Museum of Natural History and is now an assistant professor at Berea College in Kentucky -- began their investigation to understand the relationship between Earth's solid mantle and modern seafloor volcanic rocks.
Being so extremely melted would have protected these rocks from further melting that could have altered their chemical signature, allowing them to circulate in Earth's mantle for billions of years without significantly changing their chemistry. Previously, some geologists have interpreted mantle rocks with low oxidation levels as evidence that the Archean Earth's mantle was less oxidized and that through some mechanism it has become more oxidized over time. Proposed oxidation mechanisms include a gradual increase in oxidation levels due to a loss of gasses to space, recycling of old seafloor by subduction and ongoing participation of Earth's core in mantle geochemistry.
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