Abstract
Bickle et al.1 recently suggested that the major element composition and rare earth element (REE) content of komatiites indicate a lherzolitic composition for the mantle, and that the REE mantle/chondrite ratio must have a value of ∼1.0. The 143Nd/144Nd ratios for basalts show that the mantle source for basalts has a REE distribution similar to that of chondritic meteorites2. The REE lherzolite|chondrite ratios display some variation, but the ratios obtained indicate an average value of about 1.0 (ref. 3), and the REE content of lherzolite is thus consistent with lherzolitic composition for the mantle. The major element composition of the mantle is very important for both geophysics and igneous petrology and we consider here the relevance of the major element composition of lherzolites to the composition of the mantle.
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Maaløe, S., Steel, R. Mantle composition derived from the composition of lherzolites. Nature 285, 321–322 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/285321a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/285321a0
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