RETENTION OF SOLAR HELIUM AND NEON IN IDPS IN DEEP-SEA SEDIMENT

It was recently proposed that subduction of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) contained in deep sea sediments could have introduced substantial solar helium and neon to the Earth's mantle. However, it is not certain if IDPs would retain solar noble gases during subduction. A diffusion experiment that examined He and Ne in IDPs in a magnetic separate from Pacific Ocean sediments showed that He and Ne would be lost from IDPs within 3 years at 500 degrees C, and possibly within 10(5) years at 200 degrees C, which suggests that they would be lost from subducting slabs at shallow depths.