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Palaeoarchaean deep mantle heterogeneity recorded by enriched plume remnants

Nature Geoscience volume 12, pages 672–678 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The thermal and chemical state of the early Archaean deep mantle is poorly resolved due to the rare occurrences of early Archaean magnesium-rich volcanic rocks. In particular, it is not clear whether compositional heterogeneity existed in the early Archaean deep mantle and, if it did, how deep mantle heterogeneity formed. Here we present a geochronological and geochemical study on a Palaeoarchaean ultramafic–mafic suite (3.45-Gyr-old) with mantle plume signatures in Longwan, Eastern Hebei, the North China Craton. This suite consists of metamorphosed cumulates and basalts. The meta-basalts are iron rich and show the geochemical characteristics of present-day oceanic island basalt and unusually high mantle potential temperatures (1,675 °C), which suggests a deep mantle source enriched in iron and incompatible elements. The Longwan ultramafic–mafic suite is best interpreted as the remnants of a 3.45-Gyr-old enriched mantle plume. The first emergence of mantle-plume-related rocks on the Earth 3.5–3.45 billion years ago indicates that a global mantle plume event occurred with the onset of large-scale deep mantle convection in the Palaeoarchaean. Various deep mantle sources of these Palaeoarchaean mantle-plume-related rocks imply that significant compositional heterogeneity was present in the Palaeoarchaean deep mantle, most probably introduced by recycled crustal material.

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Fig. 1: Geological maps of Eastern Hebei, the NCC and the study area.
Fig. 2: CL images, U–Pb concordia diagrams and Hf–O isotopes for zircons from the meta-websterite sample J14-46c of the Palaeoarchaean Longwan ultramafic–mafic suite.
Fig. 3: Geochemical diagrams for the Palaeoarchaean Longwan ultramafic–mafic suite.
Fig. 4: Geochemical diagrams for the meta-basalts of the Palaeoarchaean Longwan ultramafic–mafic suite.
Fig. 5: Calculated melting conditions for primary magmas of the meta-ferropicrites of the Palaeoarchaean Longwan ultramafic–mafic suite.

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Data availability

The authors declare that all data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information files.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Gibson for constructive discussions. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos 41430207, 41572040 and 41372060) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (grant no. 2652018115). C.Wang acknowledges the Chinese Scholarship Council for financial support during his visit to Durham University (grant no. 201606010063).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. MOE Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China

    Chao Wang, Shuguang Song, Chunjing Wei & Jinlong Dong

  2. School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China

    Chao Wang & Yaoling Niu

  3. School of Scientific Research and State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, China

    Li Su

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Mark B. Allen & Yaoling Niu

  5. State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xian-Hua Li

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Contributions

C.Wang and S.S. designed the project and wrote the manuscript. C.Wang, S.S., C.Wei and J.D. conducted fieldwork. C.Wang, L.S. and X.-H.L. performed all the analyses. All the authors contributed to the interpretation of the results and the revision of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chao Wang or Shuguang Song.

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Wang, C., Song, S., Wei, C. et al. Palaeoarchaean deep mantle heterogeneity recorded by enriched plume remnants. Nat. Geosci. 12, 672–678 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0410-y

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