Göttingen Team Finds 0.25% Core Signal in Hawaii Plume, Challenging 4.5-Billion-Year Isolation
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 7
Göttingen Team Finds 0.25% Core Signal in Hawaii Plume, Challenging 4.5-Billion-Year Isolation
1 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · Jul 7
Summary
Ruthenium-100 and tungsten isotope anomalies in Hawaiian basalts, including samples from Kilauea, point to a core-derived chemical contribution in the mantle plume feeding the islands.
The Nature study argues Earth’s core is not fully sealed off from the mantle, overturning a long-held view of the core-mantle boundary as effectively isolated.
A direct-mixing model would require about 0.25% of the plume source to come from core metal, but that should also boost gold and platinum levels, which the rocks do not show.
The authors say a better fit is metal-oxide material crystallizing at the core’s outer edge, carrying ruthenium and tungsten upward without a matching rise in gold.
The finding does not make Hawaii a gold target; researchers call it one isotopic signal in one volcanic system and say the next test is whether other deep plumes show the same leak.