The rates of accretion, core formation and volatile loss in the early Solar System

Nuclides with half–lives of 105–108 yr permit the elucidation of nebula time–scales and the rates of accretion of planetesimals. However, the 182Hf–182W system with a half–life of 9_2 Myr also provides new and very useful constraints on the formation of the terrestrial planets. This technique allows one to address the timing of metal–silicate equilibration in objects as different as chondrites and the Earth. With improvements in sensitivity and precision, very small time differences in metal segregation in asteroids should be resolvable from measuring iron meteorites. It is already clear that the formation and differentiation of some asteroidal–sized objects was completed in less than 10 Myr. Accretion and core formation were protracted in the case of the Earth (greater than 50 Myr) relative to Mars (probably less than 20 Myr). Indeed, the Martian mantle appears to retain both chemical and isotopic heterogeneities that are residual from the process of core formation. Such early features appear to have been eliminated from the Earth's mantle presumably because of 4.5 Gyr of relatively efficient convective mixing. Tungsten isotope data provide compelling support for the ‘giant impact’ theory of lunar origin. The Moon is a high Hf/W object that contains a major component of chondritic W. This is consistent with a time of formation of greater than 50 Myr after the start of the Solar System. New highly precise oxygen isotope data are unable to resolve any difference between the source of components in the Earth and Moon. Therefore, the giant impact itself may have produced some of the differences in moderately volatile element budgets between these objects. This finds support in precise Sr isotopic data for early lunar samples. The data are consistent with the proto–Earth and Theia (the impactor) having Rb/Sr ratios that were not very different from that of present day Mars. Therefore, the extended history of accretion, rather than nebular phenomena, may be responsible for some of the major differences between the terrestrial planets.