Primordial-material preservation and Earth lower mantle structure: the influence of recycled oceanic crust

Desiderio, Matteo; Gülcher, Anna Johanna Pia; Ballmer, Maxim Dionys

doi:10.5194/se-17-55-2026

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-17-55-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-17-55-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

Research article

|

13 Jan 2026

Research article |

| 13 Jan 2026

Primordial-material preservation and Earth lower mantle structure: the influence of recycled oceanic crust

Matteo Desiderio, Anna Johanna Pia Gülcher, and Maxim Dionys Ballmer

Data sets

Raw model output presented and analyzed in "The effects of recycled oceanic crust on the preservation of primordial heterogeneity and Earth's lower-mantle-structure" Matteo Desiderio https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17409379

Video supplement

Raw model output presented and analyzed in "The effects of recycled oceanic crust on the preservation of primordial heterogeneity and Earth's lower-mantle-structure" Matteo Desiderio https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17409379

Short summary

Lava samples and seismic signals show that Earth's lower mantle is not well-mixed, but how this heterogeneity relates to the mantle's long-term history remains unclear. We study this with computer simulations of secular movements of masses in the mantle, with various materials to represent recycled and ancient rocks with different properties. We find that deep strong piles of recycled rock can help large ancient blobs survive, linking current deep-Earth observations to Earth's earliest infancy.