Phys.org  October 20, 2023
High 3He/4He ratios are thought to derive from the solar nebula or from solar-wind-irradiated material that became incorporated into Earth during early planetary accretion. Traditionally, this high-3He/4He component has been considered intrinsic to the mantle, having avoided outgassing caused by giant impacts and billions of years of mantle convection. A team of researchers in the US (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Caltech) has shown the highest magmatic 3He/4He ratio in terrestrial igneous rocks, in olivines from Baffin Island lavas. According to them the extremely high-3He/4He helium in these lavas might have been derived from Earth’s core. The viability of the core hypothesis relaxes the long-standing constraint that volatile elements from the solar nebula have survived in the mantle since the early stages of accretion… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Reproducible 3He/4He results. Credit: Nature , 18 October, 2023