2025 Nature study: Ruthenium isotopes in Hawaiian rocks suggest Earth's core leak
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A 2025 Nature study led by the University of Göttingen has detected an excess of ruthenium-100 in Hawaiian volcanic rocks, suggesting material from Earth's core is leaking into the mantle. The finding challenges the assumption that the core and mantle are chemically isolated. The research, which included samples from Iceland, Réunion, and the Galápagos, links the isotope anomaly to material that likely crossed the core-mantle boundary.
Ruthenium-100 Excess
Geochemist Nils Messling's team at the University of Göttingen developed high-precision methods to measure ruthenium isotopes in volcanic rocks from mantle plumes. The Hawaiian samples showed a small but significant excess of ruthenium-100 relative to the upper mantle—differences measured in parts per million. Because ruthenium strongly partitions into metal, nearly all of Earth's original inventory sank into the core during formation. The observed excess, combined with anomalous tungsten patterns, makes the core the most plausible source, the authors report in Nature.
Hawaii's Deep-Plume Connection
The core-mantle boundary lies about 2,900 kilometers beneath the surface. Hawaii sits above a volcanic hotspot fed by a mantle plume that some models trace to this boundary. Seismic imaging has revealed an iron-rich, ultra-low-velocity zone below Hawaii, a feature that may indicate interactions with the liquid outer core. The new isotope data add a chemical tracer, suggesting that a small amount of core material became entrained in the upwelling rock. The term 'leak' is not literal: there is no known crack sending molten core metal directly to Kīlauea.
What's Next
Messling's team plans to analyze samples from other hotspot volcanoes to determine whether core leakage is widespread. It remains unclear if the findings will force a revision of models for Earth's chemical evolution or affect understanding of precious metal distributions in the crust.
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2025 Nature study: Ruthenium isotopes in Hawaiian rocks suggest Earth's core leak
