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The lead isotopic age of the Earth can be explained by core formation alone

Author

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  • Bernard J. Wood

    (Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK
    Macquarie University)

  • Alex N. Halliday

    (Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK)

Abstract

Earth's lead isotope age The apparent lead isotope age of the silicate Earth is about 100 million years after the origin of the Solar System, but there is some dispute as to what this age really means. The requirement is that lead was lost at this time, either due to partitioning into the Earth's core or — as recently proposed — as a result of the loss of volatile lead to space at the time of the Moon-forming giant impact. Bernard Wood and Alex Halliday find new evidence to support the former idea, that lead was partitioned into the liquid iron core. They find that lead partitioning into liquid iron depends strongly on carbon content and that, given a realistic core content of about 0.2% carbon, experimental and isotopic data both provide evidence of strong partitioning of lead into the core throughout Earth's accretion.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernard J. Wood & Alex N. Halliday, 2010. "The lead isotopic age of the Earth can be explained by core formation alone," Nature, Nature, vol. 465(7299), pages 767-770, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:465:y:2010:i:7299:d:10.1038_nature09072
    DOI: 10.1038/nature09072
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