Xenon isotopic constraints on the timing of atmospheric volatile recycling

Abstract:

Constraints on the recycling of atmospheric volatiles into the deep Earth provide important insights into mantle temperature, cooling rate, structure and style of convection over Earth history. Studies of ancient atmospheric gases trapped in Archean cherts show that the Xe isotopic composition of the atmosphere at ~3.5 Ga differed from the modern atmosphere [1]. This suggests the atmosphere evolved in isotopic composition until it reached its present-day composition at some time after 3.5 Ga. The evolution of the atmospheric Xe isotopic composition presents an opportunity to constrain the timing of Xe recycling into the Earth’s mantle. Xe isotopes measured in mid-ocean ridge basalts [MORBs; 2,3] and plume-related basalts [4,5] indicate that both the upper mantle and plume source Xe isotopic compositions are dominated by recycled Xe [e.g., 3]. We find that the mantle source Xe isotopic compositions cannot be explained by recycling ancient atmospheric Xe alone; rather, subduction and incorporation of material bearing the modern atmospheric Xe composition must dominate. We note that our findings are consistent with a number of physical reasons that recently-subducted volatiles should be more prevalent than ancient subducted volatiles. First, a higher Archean mantle potential temperature should inhibit early Xe recycling to the deep Earth. Second, since the mantle turnover time scale is estimated to be between a few hundreds of Myr and 1 Gyr, the mantle recycled atmospheric Xe budget should be primarily composed of Xe subducted after ~2.5 Ga, at which point the atmosphere approaches the modern Xe composition [1]. Therefore, even if ancient atmospheric Xe were recycled efficiently to the mantle early in Earth history, the recycled atmospheric Xe budget of the mantle should still be dominated by the modern atmospheric Xe composition.

[1] Pujol et al., 2011, EPSL; [2] Tucker et al., 2012, EPSL; [3] Parai and Mukhopadhyay, 2015, G-cubed; [4] Mukhopadhyay, 2012, Nature; [5] Peto et al., 2013, EPSL.