Deep mantle storage of the Earth’s missing niobium in late-stage residual melts from a magma ocean

The origin of the observed niobium deficit in the bulk silicate Earth (BSE) compared to chondritic meteorites constitutes a long-standing problem in geochemistry. The deficit requires a large-scale process fractionating niobium from tantalum, and a super-chondritic Nb/Ta reservoir hidden in the deep silicate Earth and/or in the metallic core. The only voluminous super-chondritic Nb/Ta silicate reservoir analysed to date is found in lunar basalts that assimilated highly evolved Fe-rich rocks associated with anorthosites in the lunar crust. These Fe-rich rocks, enriched in incompatible elements, are thought to represent the last fractions of melt remaining at the end of lunar magma ocean crystallization. Here we report high-precision Nb–Ta data for a Fe-rich, late-stage rock suite associated with a terrestrial anorthosite from the Proterozoic Bolangir complex in India. The geochemical characteristics of this rock suite resemble those expected for late-stage residual melts from a terrestrial magma ocean. Samples show extreme, super-chondritic Nb/Ta up to 31.1 and highly elevated Nb concentrations up to 338 ppm. We argue that formation of an early enriched crustal reservoir (EECR) with these characteristics (high Fe, high Nb, superchondritic Nb/Ta) is likely in the course of Hadean late-stage terrestrial magma ocean solidification. Subduction and subsequent permanent deep mantle storage in the D′′ layer of a minor amount (∼0.5% of the BSE mass) of this EECR can readily explain the terrestrial Nb deficit, without the need to invoke core Nb storage. Our model is consistent with short-lived 142Nd and long-lived 176Hf–143Nd isotope models for early differentiation of the Earth’s crust. In addition, the inferred Lu/Hf of this EECR implies that this reservoir can also balance the offset of terrestrial Hf isotope ratios compared to the chondritic reservoir. As such, late-stage magma ocean residual melts may constitute the enigmatic parental reservoir of Hadean zircons with low time-integrated Hf isotope compositions.