Xenon isotopic constraints on the history of volatile recycling into the mantle
Abstract
The long-term exchange of volatile species (such as water, carbon, nitrogen and the noble gases) between deep Earth and surface reservoirs controls the habitability of the Earth's surface. The present-day volatile budget of the mantle reflects the integrated history of outgassing and retention of primordial volatiles delivered to the planet during accretion, volatile species generated by radiogenic ingrowth and volatiles transported into the mantle from surface reservoirs over time. Variations in the distribution of volatiles between deep Earth and surface reservoirs affect the viscosity, cooling rate and convective stress state of the solid Earth. Accordingly, constraints on the flux of surface volatiles transported into the deep Earth improve our understanding of mantle convection and plate tectonics. However, the history of surface volatile regassing into the mantle is not known. Here we use mantle xenon isotope systematics to constrain the age of initiation of volatile regassing into the deep Earth. Given evidence of prolonged evolution of the xenon isotopic composition of the atmosphere 1,2, we find that substantial recycling of atmospheric xenon into the deep Earth could not have occurred before 2.5 billion years ago. Xenon concentrations in downwellings remained low relative to ambient convecting mantle concentrations throughout the Archaean era, and the mantle shifted from a net degassing to a net regassing regime after 2.5 billion years ago. Because xenon is carried into the Earth's interior in hydrous mineral phases 3-5, our results indicate that downwellings were drier in the Archaean era relative to the present. Progressive drying of the Archean mantle would allow slower convection and decreased heat transport out of the mantle, suggesting non-monotonic thermal evolution of the Earth's interior.
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An alternative explanation from trapping of Xe+ in organic hazes has the problem that weathering or microbial processing of buried organics would release xenon and modulate the Xe isotopes in post-Archean air, which is not observed.
“An alternative explanation from trapping of Xe+ in organic hazes (201) has the problem that weathering or microbial processing of buried organics would release xenon and modulate the Xe isotopes in post-Archean air, which is not observed (202).”
From The Archean atmosphere (2020) · cites this paper as [202]
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Catling, D. C., & Zahnle, K. J. (2020) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aax1420 · Cited by 568 · see citing works
“An alternative explanation from trapping of Xe in organic hazes (201) has the problem that weathering or microbial processing of buried organics would release xenon and modulate the Xe isotopes in post-Archean air, which is not observed (202).”
BackgroundDong, J., Fischer, R. A., Stixrude, L. P., & Lithgow‐Bertelloni, C. R. (2021) · AGU Advances · doi:10.1029/2020av000323 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
“…been dominated by net degassing from the interior, with net regassing (re-hydration) not becoming prevalent until sometime later (Marty et al., 2019; Parai & Mukhopadhyay, 2018), though the exact timing of the switch is model-dependent, possibly sensitive to continental growth (Guo &…”
Background
- Authors
- Parai, R., & Mukhopadhyay, S.
- Affiliations
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Parai, Rita
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 2018-08
- Volume
- 560
- Issue
- 7717
- Pages
- 223-227
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2887056897
- Cited by
- 73
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 3
- FWCI
- 6.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- correction (2018-09-24)
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geophysics › Geological and Geochemical Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Astro and Planetary Science
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geophysics › High-pressure geophysics and materials
- Keywords
- xenon isotopes, Archean mantle, mantle convection, mantle thermal evolution, heat transport
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