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Is there solar argon in the Earth's mantle?

Abstract

Pepin1 suggests, mainly on the basis of three studies2,3,4, that solar argon, krypton and xenon might be present in the Earth's mantle. But I believe that the analytical evidence is still too weak to claim such a breakthrough in rare-gas geochemistry. Moreover, other studies5,6,7,8, and the new data I report here, indicate that solar argon, krypton and xenon, if present at all, are only a minor constituent of mantle rare gases.

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Figure 1: Isotope correlations.

References

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Kunz, J. Is there solar argon in the Earth's mantle?. Nature 399, 649–650 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/21352

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