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The great sulfur depletion of Earth’s mantle is not a signature of mantle–core equilibration

Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology volume 172, Article number: 68 (2017) Cite this article

Abstract

The extreme depletion of the Earth’s mantle in sulfur is commonly seen as a signature of metal segregation from Earth’s mantle to Earth’s core. However, in addition to S, the mantle contains other elements as volatile as S that are hardly depleted relative to the lithophile volatility trend although they are potentially as siderophile as sulfur. We report experiments in metal-sulfide–silicate systems to show that the CI normalized abundances of S, Pb, and Sn in Earth’s mantle cannot be reproduced by element partitioning in Fe ± S–silicate systems, neither at low nor at high pressure. Much of the volatile inventory of the Earth’s mantle must have been added late in the accretion history, when metal melt segregation to the core had become largely inactive. The great depletion in S is attributed to the selective segregation of a late sulfide matte from an oxidized and largely crystalline mantle. Apparently, the volatile abundances of Earth’s mantle are not in redox equilibrium with Earth’s core.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dieter Lülsdorf of the mechanical workshop for technical assistance, Thomas Schulz for helping with all aspects of experimentation, and Nils Jung for lapidary work. Comments by Balz Kamber, Herbert Palme, Jon Wade, and Sasha Borisov greatly helped in clarifying the arguments presented here. C.B., A.R, and A.K.V acknowledge financial support by the DFG through Grants Ba 964/26, SFB 170 (“Late Accretion of Terrestrial Planets”), and Ru 1323/2 within the SPP 1385 (“The First 10 Million Years of the Solar System”), respectively. We thank Jochen Hoefs for careful editorial handling of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Steinmann Institut, Universität Bonn, Meckenheimer Allee 169, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Chris Ballhaus, Raúl O. C. Fonseca, Iris M. Speelmanns, Hassan M. Helmy, Aurelia Zirner & Alexander Heuser

  2. Institut für Geologie und Mineralogie, Universität zu Köln, 50674, Cologne, Germany

    Carsten Münker

  3. Institut für Mineralogie, Universität Münster, Corrensstr. 24, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Arno Rohrbach

  4. Geology Department, University of Århus, Århus, Denmark

    Thorsten Nagel

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Iris M. Speelmanns

  6. Department of Geology, Minia University, 61519, Minia, Egypt

    Hassan M. Helmy

  7. Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, 95440, Bayreuth, Germany

    Antje K. Vogel

  8. GEOMAR, Wischhofstr. 1-3, 24148, Kiel, Germany

    Alexander Heuser

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  1. Chris Ballhaus
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Correspondence to Chris Ballhaus.

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Communicated by Jochen Hoefs.

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Ballhaus, C., Fonseca, R.O.C., Münker, C. et al. The great sulfur depletion of Earth’s mantle is not a signature of mantle–core equilibration. Contrib Mineral Petrol 172, 68 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-017-1388-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00410-017-1388-3

Keywords

  • Sulfur
  • High pressure core formation
  • Volatile elements
  • Heterogeneous accretion
  • Earth’s mantle
  • Hadean matte
  • Late veneer