Ruthenium isotope vestige of Earth’s pre-late-veneer mantle preserved in Archaean rocks

Abstract

The accretion of volatile-rich material from the outer solar system represents a crucial prerequisite for Earth developing oceans and becoming a habitable planet1–4. However, the timing of this accretion remains controversial5–8. It was proposed that volatile elements were added to Earth by late accretion of a late veneer consisting of carbonaceous chondrite-like material after core formation had ceased6,9,10. This view, however, could not be reconciled with the distinct ruthenium (Ru) isotope composition of carbonaceous chondrites5,11 compared to the modern mantle12, and in fact also not with any known meteorite group5. As a possible solution, Earth’s pre-late veneer mantle could already have contained a significant amount of Ru that was not fully extracted by core formation13. The presence of such pre-late veneer Ru could only be proven if its isotope composition would be distinct from that of the modern mantle. Here we report the first high-precision mass-independent Ru isotope compositions for Eoarchean ultramafic rocks from SW Greenland, which display a relative 100Ru excess of +22 parts per million compared to the modern mantle value. This 100Ru excess indicates that the source of the Eoarchean rocks already contained a significant fraction of Ru prior to the late veneer. By 3.7 Gyr the mantle beneath the SW Greenland rocks had not yet fully equilibrated with late accreted material. Otherwise, no Ru isotopic difference relative to the modern mantle would be observed. By considering constraints from other highly siderophile elements beyond Ru14, the composition of the modern mantle can only be reconciled if the late veneer contained significant portions of carbonaceous chondrite-like materials with their characteristic 100Ru deficits. These data therefore relax previous constraints on the late veneer and now permit that volatile-rich material from the outer solar system was delivered to Earth during late accretion.