Citizen / General public
Researcher
Student / Future student
Company
Public partner
Journalist
Teacher / Pupil

Most of the platinum in the Earth’s mantle was brought by meteorites after the formation of the core

Most of the platinum in the Earth’s mantle was brought by meteorites after the formation of the core

© Péter Kövesi on Pexels

Publication date: 14/11/2016

Press, Research

Related themes : Origins

By analyzing, for the first time, the natural isotopic composition of platinum in meteorites as well as in ancient (over 3.85 billion years old) and modern terrestrial rocks, an international team including IPGP researchers has established the origin of terrestrial platinum. While the platinum contained in modern rocks was brought by meteorites after the formation of the Earth’s core, a fraction of the platinum contained in the oldest terrestrial rocks is primordial platinum, dating from before the formation of the Earth’s core. This suggests that modern-style plate tectonics began more than 3.85 billion years ago.

 

Ref : Creech, J.B., Baker, J.A., Handler, M.R., Lorand, J.-P., Storey, M., Wainwright, A.N., Luguet, A., Moynier, F., Bizzarro, M. (2017) Late accretion history of the terrestrial planets inferred from platinum stable isotopes. Geochem. Persp. Let. 3, 94-104.

Latest news
Radio ‘whistlers’ originating from lightning strikes reveal unprecedented behaviour above the magnetic equator
Radio ‘whistlers’ originating from lightning strikes reveal unprecedented behaviour above the magnetic equator
A team from the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP – Université Paris Cité / CNRS) has, for the first time, documented and explained the unu...
What can the light from Vesta’s avalanches tell us?
What can the light from Vesta’s avalanches tell us?
A study conducted at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris uses images from NASA’s Dawn mission and a Bayesian inversion of the Hapke photometric...
Cosmochemistry in the service of Alzheimer's disease diagnosis: copper reveals its isotopic secrets
Cosmochemistry in the service of Alzheimer's disease diagnosis: copper reveals its isotopic secrets
A multidisciplinary study led by researchers at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), in collaboration with teams from the Faculty of Hea...
Are the hidden currents of Ganymede’s ocean finally detectable?
Are the hidden currents of Ganymede’s ocean finally detectable?
A study conducted by researchers from the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP) and CNRS shows that the convection motions driving the hidden ...