Articles | Volume 10, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-10-1409-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/se-10-1409-2019
Research article
 | 
28 Aug 2019
Research article |  | 28 Aug 2019

Chemical heterogeneities in the mantle: progress towards a general quantitative description

Massimiliano Tirone

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Cited articles

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Ballmer, M. D., Houser, C., Hernlund, J. W., Wentzcovitch, R. M., and Hirose, K.: Persistence of strong silica-enriched domains in the Earth's lower mantle, Nat. Geosci., 10, 236–240, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2898, 2017. a
Berman, R. G.: Internally-consistent thermodynamic data for minerals in the system Na2O-K2O-CaO-MgO-FeO-Fe2O3-Al2O3-SiO2-TiO2-H2O-CO2, J. Petrol., 29, 445–552, 1988. a
Blusztajn, J., Shimizu, N., Warren, J. M., and Dick, H. J. B.: In-situ Pb isotopic analysis of sulfides in abyssal peridotites: New insights into heterogeneity and evolution of the oceanic upper mantle, Geology, 42, 159–162, https://doi.org/10.1130/G34966.1, 2014. a
Brandenburg, J. P., Hauri, E. H., van Keken, P. E., and Ballentine, C. J.: A multiple-system study of the geochemical evolution of the mantle with force-balanced plates and thermochemical effects, Earth Planet. Sc. Lett, 276, 1–13, 2008. a
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The prevalent assumption in solid Earth science is that if we have different lithologies in the mantle they are separately in chemical equilibrium and together in chemical disequilibrium; this is the condition that at the moment defines a chemically heterogeneous mantle. The main contribution of this study is to show that this may not be the case. We can have (partial) chemical equilibration between the two and still observe a chemically heterogeneous mantle.