Mantle Heterogeneity

✦ Cross section of earth's mantle showing the resulting tracer particles from a numerical model of mantle heterogeneity. (From the work of van Keken and Brandenburg, 2007, 2008, used with permission).

Relevant Publications

Dottin III, J. W., Horton, F., Alexander, C.M.O'D., Shahar, A., Wang, J. Boesenberg, J.S., Bullock, E., and Shirey, S.B. (2025) Hydrogen isotopic evidence for a core component in Baffin Island lavas. Science Advances 11, eadr2917. https://10.1126/sciadv.adr2917

Peters, D., Rizo, H., O’Neil, J., Hamelin, C., Shirey, S.B. (2024) Comparative 142Nd and 182W study of MORBs and the 4.5 Gyr evolution of the upper mantle. Geochemical Perpsective Letters 29 51–56. https://doi.org/10.7185/geochemlet.2412

Jackson, M. G., Shirey, S. B., Hauri, E. H., Kurz, M. D., & Rizo, H. (2016). Peridotite xenoliths from the Polynesian Austral and Samoa hotspots: Implications for the destruction of ancient 187Os and 142Nd isotopic domains and the preservation of Hadean 129Xe in the modern convecting mantle. Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta, 185(Supplement C), 21–43. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.02.011

Warren, J.M., and Shirey, S.B. (2012) Lead and osmium isotopic constraints on the oceanic mantle from single abyssal peridotite sulfides: Earth And Planetary Science Letters, v. 359, p. 279–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2012.09.055 

Class, C., Goldstein, S.L., and Shirey, S.B., 2009, Osmium isotopes in Grande Comore lavas: A new extreme among a spectrum of EM-type mantle endmembers: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 284, p. 219-227. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2009.04.031

Shirey, S.B., Kamber, B.S., Whitehouse, M.J., Mueller, P.A., and Basu, A.R., 2008, A review of the isotopic and trace element evidence for mantle and crustal processes in the Hadean and Archean: Implications for the onset of plate tectonic subduction, in Condie, K., and Pease, V., eds., When Did Plate Tectonics Begin on Earth?, Volume 440: Boulder, CO, Geological Society of America Special Paper, p. 1-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/2008.2440(01)

le Roux, P.J., Shirey, S.B., Hauri, E.H., Perfit, M.R., and Bender, J.F., 2006, The effects of variable sources, processes and contaminants on the composition of northern EPR MORB (8-10oN and 12-14oN): Evidence from volatiles (H2O, CO2, S) and halogens (F, Cl): Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 251, p. 209-231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2006.09.012

Castillo, P.R., Klein, E., Bender, J., Langmuir, C., Shirey, S.B., Batiza, R., and White, W., 2000, Petrology and Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope geochemistry of mid-ocean ridge basalt glasses from the 11 degrees 45'N to 15 degrees 00'N segment of the East Pacific Rise: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems - G 3, v. 1, p. 1999GC000024. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999GC000024

Widom, E., Hoernle, K. A., Shirey, S. B., & Schmincke, H. U. (1999). Os isotope systematics in the Canary Islands and Madeira: Lithospheric contamination and mantle plume signatures. Journal of Petrology, 40(2), 279–296. http://doi.org/10.1093/petroj/40.2.279

Widom, E., & Shirey, S. B. (1996). Os isotope systematics in the Azores: implications for mantle plume sources. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 142(3), 451–465. http://doi.org/10.1016/0012-821X(96)00111-2

Shirey, S. B., Bender, J. F., & Langmuir, C. H. (1987). Three-component isotopic heterogeneity near the Oceanographer transform, Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Nature, 325(6), 217–223. http://doi.org/10.1038/325217a0

Shirey, S.B., and Hanson, G.N., 1986, Mantle heterogeneity and crustal recycling in Archean granite-greenstone belts; evidence from Nd isotopes and trace elements in the Rainy Lake area, Superior Province, Ontario, Canada: Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 50, p. 2631-2651. https://doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(86)90215-2