182W evidence from flood basalt lavas for the long-term survival of primordial mantle

How much of the chemical heterogeneity present in mantle today dates to processes that occurred during Earth's planetary formation stage remains an unanswered question. Geochemical observations obtained from short-lived radiogenic isotope systems, however, provide important insights. Tungsten isotope data for flood basalt lavas from two large igneous provinces, the North Atlantic Igneous Province ( 60 Ma) and the Ontong Java Plateau ( 120 Ma), show well resolved 182W excesses, compared with terrestrial standards that are presumed to be representative of the present bulk mantle. These W isotope results, thus, indicate that one or more mantle domains formed very early in Earth history and have been preserved well into the Phanerozoic eon. The flood basalts from Baffin Bay contain among the highest 3He/4He ratios ever measured, as well as Pb and 143Nd isotopic compositions, and D/H ratios consistent with a chemically primitive, un-degassed mantle source. Ontong Java is the Earth's largest known volcanic province and shares chemical and isotopic similarities with the Baffin Bay lavas, indicative of a similarly primitive mantle source. The 182W-enriched nature of the mantle sources of rocks from both locations indicates that their primitive characteristics were likely isolated in a deep mantle reservoir within the first 50 Ma of Solar System history. The correlation between large low seismic shear velocity provinces (LLSVPs) and the distribution of reconstructed eruption sites of these large igneous provinces makes the LLSVPs possible candidate domains for the required primitive and un-degassed reservoirs.