Detection of a Ca-rich lithology in the Earth's deep (>300 km) convecting mantle

2005

Earth's deep convecting upper mantle is believed to represent a rather homogenous geochemical reservoir of spinel or garnet lherzolite with primitive major element and moderately depleted trace element composition. Only where subduction occurs is this homogeneity disrupted by a suite of rocks ranging from eclogites/garnet pyroxenites (former oceanic crust) to residual harzburgites. In addition to these well documented peridotitic and metabasaltic rocks we have now discovered the presence of a chemically distinct reservoir in the deep convecting upper mantle. In situ structural analyses (micro X-ray diffraction and micro Raman spectroscopy) and three-dimensional trace element mapping (confoc…