Ancient storage of anomalous mercury isotope signatures in the Earth’s transition zone

Characterizing the mantle transition zone (MTZ) is essential for understanding Earth's evolution and dynamics. Petrological, geochemical, and geophysical evidence suggests that the MTZ may host subducted slabs containing sediments and volatiles, potentially forming enriched mantle 1 (EM1) reservoirs. However, the links between volatiles, subduction components, and mantle endmembers stored therein remain unclear. Here we present mercury isotope data for Cenozoic intraplate EM1-type basalts from Northeast Asia, derived from volatile-rich MTZ. These basalts exhibit negative mass-independent fractionation (Δ¹⁹⁹Hg, Δ²⁰¹Hg), and they also display mass-dependent fractionation (δ²⁰²Hg) that correlates with geochemical indicaters of mantle heterogeneity. The results indicate incorporation of recycled ancient terrigenous sediments with anomalous Hg signatures into the MTZ, later tapped during hydrous upwellings or entrained into ascending mantle plumes to form EM1-type basalts. Our findings demonstrate that distinct Hg-isotope anomalies can persist in the MTZ for over a billion years, recording long-term volatile recycling in Earth's deep mantle.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2025-11-28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66917-z
Primary Topic
Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
Type
article
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article

Ancient storage of anomalous mercury isotope signatures in the Earth’s transition zone

Yibing Li, Rong Xu, Runsheng Yin, Ganglan Zhang et al.
Nature Communications
Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
article

Ancient storage of anomalous mercury isotope signatures in the Earth’s transition zone

Yibing Li, Rong Xu, Runsheng Yin, Ganglan Zhang, Chunfei Chen, Jingduo Zhang, Zhong‐Jie Bai, Yue Cai, Michael Bizimis, Liang Liu, William M. White, Meifu Zhou, T. Ruan, Zhendong Tian, Yongsheng Liu
article en

Abstract

Characterizing the mantle transition zone (MTZ) is essential for understanding Earth's evolution and dynamics. Petrological, geochemical, and geophysical evidence suggests that the MTZ may host subducted slabs containing sediments and volatiles, potentially forming enriched mantle 1 (EM1) reservoirs. However, the links between volatiles, subduction components, and mantle endmembers stored therein remain unclear. Here we present mercury isotope data for Cenozoic intraplate EM1-type basalts from Northeast Asia, derived from volatile-rich MTZ. These basalts exhibit negative mass-independent fractionation (Δ¹⁹⁹Hg, Δ²⁰¹Hg), and they also display mass-dependent fractionation (δ²⁰²Hg) that correlates with geochemical indicaters of mantle heterogeneity. The results indicate incorporation of recycled ancient terrigenous sediments with anomalous Hg signatures into the MTZ, later tapped during hydrous upwellings or entrained into ascending mantle plumes to form EM1-type basalts. Our findings demonstrate that distinct Hg-isotope anomalies can persist in the MTZ for over a billion years, recording long-term volatile recycling in Earth's deep mantle.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
University of South Carolina (US), Yangtze University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Cornell University (US), Ministry of Natural Resources (CN), China University of Geosciences (CN), Zhejiang Ocean University (CN), Wuhan University (CN), Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey (CN), Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (CN), Institute of Geochemistry (CN)
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Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils
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