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The terrestrial uranium isotope cycle

Nature volume 517, pages 356–359 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Changing conditions on the Earth’s surface can have a remarkable influence on the composition of its overwhelmingly more massive interior. The global distribution of uranium is a notable example. In early Earth history, the continental crust was enriched in uranium. Yet after the initial rise in atmospheric oxygen, about 2.4 billion years ago, the aqueous mobility of oxidized uranium resulted in its significant transport to the oceans and, ultimately, by means of subduction, back to the mantle1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. Here we explore the isotopic characteristics of this global uranium cycle. We show that the subducted flux of uranium is isotopically distinct, with high 238U/235U ratios, as a result of alteration processes at the bottom of an oxic ocean. We also find that mid-ocean-ridge basalts (MORBs) have 238U/235U ratios higher than does the bulk Earth, confirming the widespread pollution of the upper mantle with this recycled uranium. Although many ocean island basalts (OIBs) are argued to contain a recycled component9, their uranium isotopic compositions do not differ from those of the bulk Earth. Because subducted uranium was probably isotopically unfractionated before full oceanic oxidation, about 600 million years ago, this observation reflects the greater antiquity of OIB sources. Elemental and isotope systematics of uranium in OIBs are strikingly consistent with previous OIB lead model ages10, indicating that these mantle reservoirs formed between 2.4 and 1.8 billion years ago. In contrast, the uranium isotopic composition of MORB requires the convective stirring of recycled uranium throughout the upper mantle within the past 600 million years.

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Figure 1: Uranium isotopic compositions (δ238U) versus Th/U ratios for mantle-derived basalts and altered oceanic crust.
Figure 2: Cartoon of the terrestrial U isotope cycle over the history of Earth.
Figure 3: Pb model ages versus Th/U in OIB mantle sources.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support for this research was provided by NERC grant NE/H023933/1. We thank the Natural History Museum, London, and M. Anand for providing meteorite samples. H. Staudigel and T. Plank were instrumental in producing and curating AOC composite samples. We are grateful to C. Taylor for careful picking of MORB glasses, E. Melekhova for preparing the quenched glass, D. Vance for comments and C. Coath for maintenance of the mass spectrometers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bristol Isotope Group, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK,

    Morten B. Andersen, Tim Elliott & Heye Freymuth

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology, ETH Zürich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland,

    Morten B. Andersen

  3. Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, 82071-2000, Wyoming, USA

    Kenneth W. W. Sims

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK,

    Yaoling Niu

  5. Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, 02882-1197, Rhode Island, USA

    Katherine A. Kelley

Authors
  1. Morten B. Andersen
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  2. Tim Elliott
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  3. Heye Freymuth
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  4. Kenneth W. W. Sims
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  5. Yaoling Niu
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  6. Katherine A. Kelley
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Contributions

Analytical set-up was done by M.B.A. Sample preparation and analyses were carried out by M.B.A. and H.F. MORB samples and AOC composites were provided by K.W.W.S., Y.N. and K.A.K. All authors contributed with discussions. T.E. carried out the Pb modelling. T.E. and M.B.A. prepared the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Morten B. Andersen.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

Data can be found in the EarthChem portal (http://www.iedadata.org). The nine-digit IGNS numbers for the sample set starts with ‘IEMBA’.

Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Figure 1 δ238U reproducibility of standards.

Repeated δ238U measurements of a range of standards with different matrixes (CZ-1 uraninite, BHVO-2/LP 45 E basalts, seawater) are shown. All have external reproducibility (2 s.d., grey shaded area) better than ±0.30‰, a similar range to the internal measurement uncertainty (2 s.e.) for individual samples (Methods). The different symbols refer to the different measurement set-ups (Supplementary Table 4).

Extended Data Figure 2 U–Th geochemistry of analysed meteorites.

a, δ238U versus U concentration for ordinary chondrites (black diamonds, ‘finds’; red diamonds, ‘falls’). b, δ238U versus (234U/238U) for ordinary chondrites (symbols as in a) and eucrites (blue circles). c, δ238U versus Th/U for the same samples as in a and b. d, A ‘Caltech plot’ of the δ238U of individual meteorite samples and averages based on (1) the only two meteorites with (234U/238U) within error of secular equilibrium (‘Mean (Z+J)’) and (2) all of the analysed meteorites (‘Mean all’). Error bars denote 2 s.e.m.

Extended Data Figure 3 U–Th isotope systematics in the OIB used for Pb age modelling.

Symbol colours are as in Fig. 3: (1) Hawaii, (2) Iceland, (3) Azores I, (4) La Palma, (5) French Polynesia, (6) Samoa, (7) Azores II, (8) Réunion. References can be found in Extended Data Table 1. Note that the y axis shows activity ratio whereas the x axis shows a weight ratio. The dashed line represents secular equilibrium of (230Th/238U).

Extended Data Table 1 Literature compilation of Pb, U and Th in Ocean Island Basalts
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 Input parameters for calculating Pb model ages
Full size table

Supplementary information

Supplementary Table 1

U isotopic compositions and supplementary data for samples. (XLSX 20 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Reductive MORB cleaning: U to refractory element ratios and percentages of leached U, Th and Pb. (XLSX 16 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

IRMM-3636 spike calibration using repeat. (XLSX 10 kb)

Supplementary Table 4

Standard reproducibility (normalised to CRM145). (XLSX 23 kb)

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Andersen, M., Elliott, T., Freymuth, H. et al. The terrestrial uranium isotope cycle. Nature 517, 356–359 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14062

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