Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20525-1
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Funding
- National Key R&D Program of China [2019YFA0708404]
- National Nature Science Foundation of China [41973010, 41925017, 41721002]
- 111 Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, China [BP0719021]
- Fok Ying-Tong Education Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB18000000]
- NSF [EAR-1942042]
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During Earth's late-stage accretion, impactors delivered most of the volatiles, with nickel serving as an important tracer. Research has found that the BSE has a lighter nickel isotopic composition compared to chondrites, suggesting that this sub-chondritic signature was established during the Moon-forming giant impact.
Earth's habitability is closely tied to its late-stage accretion, during which impactors delivered the majority of life-essential volatiles. However, the nature of these final building blocks remains poorly constrained. Nickel (Ni) can be a useful tracer in characterizing this accretion as most Ni in the bulk silicate Earth (BSE) comes from the late-stage impactors. Here, we apply Ni stable isotope analysis to a large number of meteorites and terrestrial rocks, and find that the BSE has a lighter Ni isotopic composition compared to chondrites. Using firstprinciples calculations based on density functional theory, we show that core-mantle differentiation cannot produce the observed light Ni isotopic composition of the BSE. Rather, the sub-chondritic Ni isotopic signature was established during Earth's late-stage accretion, probably through the Moon-forming giant impact. We propose that a highly reduced sulfiderich, Mercury-like body, whose mantle is characterized by light Ni isotopic composition, collided with and merged into the proto-Earth during the Moon-forming giant impact, producing the sub-chondritic Ni isotopic signature of the BSE, while delivering sulfur and probably other volatiles to the Earth.
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