Lithium isotope evidence for subduction-enriched mantle in the source of mid-ocean-ridge basalts

Tim Elliott (), Alex Thomas, Alistair Jeffcoate and Yaoling Niu
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Tim Elliott: University of Bristol
Alex Thomas: University of Bristol
Alistair Jeffcoate: University of Bristol
Yaoling Niu: Durham University

Nature, 2006, vol. 443, issue 7111, 565-568

Abstract: Crustal recycling — of sorts The process of plate tectonics continually returns material from the Earth's surface to its interior. A major goal of geochemists has been to see if convective flow within the Earth ever allows such compositionally distinctive material to return to the surface. A study of lithium isotope variations in the upper mantle now provides firm evidence for such a 'recycled' signature in the chemical compositions of some submarine lavas that sample the convecting interior of the Earth. Yet the 'recycled' signature they record appears to arise not from former crustal plates themselves, as was expected, but from mantle material influenced by the subducting crust at convergence zones. The fate of the plates themselves thus remains elusive.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05144

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