Scientists including Matisse Smith of the University of British Columbia analyzed lava from regions including Hawaii, Samoa and Iceland and concluded that the lava came from a common source in the mantle.
The study highlights that lavas acquire their unique chemical signatures only as they rise to the surface through different rocks, rather than originating from individual mantle reservoirs. This finding challenges the traditional view that the mantle contains a variety of isolated chemical reservoirs formed by different geological processes.
This new insight not only changes our understanding of hotspot lavas, but also links oceanic and continental basaltic lavas to a common igneous “ancestor,” Smith noted.
The results of this study expand our understanding of Earth’s chemical evolution and the dynamics of plate tectonics, suggesting that the mantle may not contain previously assumed “primordial reservoirs.”
Source: Ferra
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