资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

The Earth's mantle shows large-scale geochemical heterogeneities bounded by several identifiable end-member compositions. However, the origin of extreme mantle reservoirs, for example, high U-238/Pb-204 (HIMU), and their location in the Earth's interior remains poorly constrained. Clinopyroxenes from late Cenozoic Wudi lavas in eastern China have heterogeneous Pb isotopic compositions, even though the erupted lavas are isotopically homogeneous. Our new results provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence for the existence of a HIMU-like component in the sources of late Cenozoic lavas. Analyses of olivines and their host lavas indicate that the basaltic melts are derived from partial melting of carbonated peridotite. The HIMU source is likely to be younger than 700 Ma old and related to subduction events of the Paleo-Asian ocean. In addition to deep and ancient recycling, storage of a metasomatically produced mantle reservoir in the mantle transition zone may be an important mechanism for developing extreme isotopic signatures.