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The origin and degassing history of the Earth's atmosphere revealed by Archean xenon

Xenon (Xe) is an exceptional tracer for investigating the origin and fate of volatile elements on Earth. The initial isotopic composition of atmospheric Xe remains unknown, as do the mechanisms involved in its depletion and isotopic fractionation compared with other reservoirs in the solar system. H...

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Autores principales: Avice, Guillaume, Marty, Bernard, Burgess, Ray
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5454381/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28516958
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15455
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author Avice, Guillaume
Marty, Bernard
Burgess, Ray
author_facet Avice, Guillaume
Marty, Bernard
Burgess, Ray
author_sort Avice, Guillaume
collection PubMed
description Xenon (Xe) is an exceptional tracer for investigating the origin and fate of volatile elements on Earth. The initial isotopic composition of atmospheric Xe remains unknown, as do the mechanisms involved in its depletion and isotopic fractionation compared with other reservoirs in the solar system. Here we present high precision analyses of noble gases trapped in fluid inclusions of Archean quartz (Barberton, South Africa) that reveal the isotopic composition of the paleo-atmosphere at ≈3.3 Ga. The Archean atmospheric Xe is mass-dependently fractionated by 12.9±2.4 ‰ u(−1) (± 2σ, s.d.) relative to the modern atmosphere. The lower than today (129)Xe excess requires a degassing rate of radiogenic Xe from the mantle higher than at present. The primordial Xe component delivered to the Earth's atmosphere is distinct from Solar or Chondritic Xe but similar to a theoretical component called U-Xe. Comets may have brought this component to the Earth's atmosphere during the last stages of terrestrial accretion.
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spelling pubmed-54543812017-06-07 The origin and degassing history of the Earth's atmosphere revealed by Archean xenon Avice, Guillaume Marty, Bernard Burgess, Ray Nat Commun Article Xenon (Xe) is an exceptional tracer for investigating the origin and fate of volatile elements on Earth. The initial isotopic composition of atmospheric Xe remains unknown, as do the mechanisms involved in its depletion and isotopic fractionation compared with other reservoirs in the solar system. Here we present high precision analyses of noble gases trapped in fluid inclusions of Archean quartz (Barberton, South Africa) that reveal the isotopic composition of the paleo-atmosphere at ≈3.3 Ga. The Archean atmospheric Xe is mass-dependently fractionated by 12.9±2.4 ‰ u(−1) (± 2σ, s.d.) relative to the modern atmosphere. The lower than today (129)Xe excess requires a degassing rate of radiogenic Xe from the mantle higher than at present. The primordial Xe component delivered to the Earth's atmosphere is distinct from Solar or Chondritic Xe but similar to a theoretical component called U-Xe. Comets may have brought this component to the Earth's atmosphere during the last stages of terrestrial accretion. Nature Publishing Group 2017-05-18 /pmc/articles/PMC5454381/ /pubmed/28516958 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15455 Text en Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Avice, Guillaume
Marty, Bernard
Burgess, Ray
The origin and degassing history of the Earth's atmosphere revealed by Archean xenon
title The origin and degassing history of the Earth's atmosphere revealed by Archean xenon
title_full The origin and degassing history of the Earth's atmosphere revealed by Archean xenon
title_fullStr The origin and degassing history of the Earth's atmosphere revealed by Archean xenon
title_full_unstemmed The origin and degassing history of the Earth's atmosphere revealed by Archean xenon
title_short The origin and degassing history of the Earth's atmosphere revealed by Archean xenon
title_sort origin and degassing history of the earth's atmosphere revealed by archean xenon
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5454381/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28516958
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms15455
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