The cosmic molybdenum-neodymium isotope correlation and the building material of the Earth

Abstract

The isotopic similarity of enstatite chondrites and Earth has often been cited as evidence that the Earth is made of enstatite chondrite-like material. Here we show, however, that enstatite chondrites exhibit nucleosynthetic molybdenum (Mo) isotope anomalies and, therefore, cannot represent the sole building blocks of the Earth. Enstatite and ordinary chondrites together with the Earth's mantle plot on a cosmic Mo-Nd isotope correlation line that reflects varying proportions of s-process matter in these samples. This correlation indicates that the nucleosynthetic makeup of Earth's building material did not change over time and that Earth, on average, accreted from bodies that originated closer to the Sun and were enriched in s-process matter compared to known chondrites. As such, any contribution of chondrites to Earth's accreting material must be compensated by the addition of s-process enriched bodies. This material is not present in our meteorite collections, but may have been sampled by Venus or Mercury. The s-process enriched nature of the Earth can fully account for its higher 142Nd compared to chondrites, which therefore does not require an early differentiation of Earth's mantle.