Core formation resolves Earth’s siderophile excess without a late veneer
Highly siderophile elements (HSEs) are expected to be extensively depleted in the mantle due to their affinity for metal during core formation. Yet, their abundances in the mantle far exceed the predictions based on low pressure and low temperature partitioning experiments. In addition, all HSEs are present in similar chondritic relative proportion in the mantle. This has traditionally been attributed to the late accretion of chondritic material, the late veneer. We present laser-heated diamond anvil cell experiments that quantify the partitioning behavior of five HSEs (rhenium, osmium, iridium, palladium, and gold) under pressure-temperature conditions directly relevant to early Earth’s magma ocean. Our results demonstrate a substantial decrease in metal-silicate partition coefficients with increasing temperature. Multistage accretion models reproduce the observed HSE abundances and ratios in the mantle without invoking a late veneer. This resolves the longstanding paradox of HSEs excess’ in the mantle and suggests that the delivery of volatile compounds to the young Earth is primarily explained by early accretion and differentiation processes.
Authors
- Edith Kubik (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2226-8502)
- Anja Schreiber (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8036-0473)
- Julien Siebert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9972-6239)
- Nicolas Guignot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1105-6985)
- Max Wilke (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1890-3940)
- Sylvain Petitgirard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9838-1742)
- Ingrid Blanchard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8041-5702)
- Sergey S. Lobanov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9728-2363)
- Valentina Bonino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3616-5494)
- Paraskevas Parisiades (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6962-264X)
- François Guyot (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4622-2218)
- Lucas Matias Calvo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8304-0769)
- Coline Pinchon
Institutions
- University College Dublin (IE)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Institut de physique du globe de Paris (FR)
- University of Potsdam (DE)
- Université Paris Cité (FR)
- Synchrotron soleil (FR)
- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (FR)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Laboratoire de Minéralogie & Cosmochimie du Muséum (FR)
- Institut de minéralogie, de physique des matériaux et de cosmochimie (FR)
- GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences (DE)
- University of Bayreuth (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science Advances
- Published
- 2026-09-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aef0411
- Primary Topic
- High-pressure geophysics and materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00