Stable Zirconium Isotopic Compositions of the Metasomatized Mantle

Abstract

AbstractMantle metasomatism, which affects the geochemical and lithological properties of the Earth, is crucial to the evolution and modification of the Earth's interior. Variations in chemical proxy of metasomatism, including high‐field strength elements (HFSE, e.g., Zr‐Ti isotopes and isovalent Zr‐Hf), have been commonly utilized as a tool to unravel the processes associated with the evolution of the Earth. However, the impact of mantle metasomatism by diverse agents on the Zr isotopic compositions of metasomatized mantle remains poorly understood. Here we carried out high‐precision double‐spike δ94/90Zr measurements for a suite of basalts, which were derived from the mantle sources metasomatized by typical metasomatic agents of fluid, silicate melt and carbonate melt originating from the deep mantle or recycled crustal materials. Mantle metasomatism results in lithological diversities within the mantle, ranging from hybridized peridotites to pyroxenite/eclogite and carbonated eclogite, which can significantly fractionate the isovalent HFSEs. However, our data show that these basalts have primitive mantle‐like δ94ZrNIST values (−0.033–0.043 ‰), regardless of their superchondritic Zr/Hf. The primitive mantle‐like δ94ZrNIST, irrelevant to any proxy of metasomatism (e.g., Sr‐Nd isotopes, Zr/Hf and La/Sm), indicate that mantle metasomatism and subsequence melting produce no measurable Zr isotopic variations in metasomatized mantle‐derived basalts. The δ94ZrNIST of basalts thus can be representative of the mean metasomatized mantle compositions. Combined with previously reported komatiites and oceanic basalts, we show that the Earth's mantle displays consistent δ94ZrNIST (−0.013 ± 0.053 ‰), even if it has a secular dynamic evolution with the interaction between Earth's exterior and interior.