Tungsten isotopic evidence for disproportional late accretion to the Earth and Moon

Characterization of the hafnium–tungsten systematics (182Hf decaying to 182W and emitting two electrons with a half-life of 8.9 million years) of the lunar mantle will enable better constraints on the timescale and processes involved in the currently accepted giant-impact theory for the formation and evolution of the Moon, and for testing the late-accretion hypothesis. Uniform, terrestrial-mantle-like W isotopic compositions have been reported1, 2 among crystallization products of the lunar magma ocean. These observations were interpreted to reflect formation of the Moon and crystallization of the lunar magma ocean after 182Hf was no longer extant—that is, more than about 60 million years after the Solar System formed. Here we present W isotope data for three lunar samples that are more precise by a factor of ≥4 than those previously reported1, 2. The new data reveal that the lunar mantle has a well-resolved 182W excess of 20.6 ± 5.1 parts per million (±2 standard deviations), relative to the modern terrestrial mantle. The offset between the mantles of the Moon and the modern Earth is best explained by assuming that the W isotopic compositions of the two bodies were identical immediately following formation of the Moon, and that they then diverged as a result of disproportional late accretion to the Earth and Moon3, 4. One implication of this model is that metal from the core of the Moon-forming impactor must have efficiently stripped the Earth’s mantle of highly siderophile elements on its way to merge with the terrestrial core, requiring a substantial, but still poorly defined, level of metal–silicate equilibration.