The abundances of highly siderophile (iron-loving) elements (HSEs) in the E
arth's mantle provide important constraints on models of the Earth's early
evolution. It has long been assumed that the relative abundances of HSEs sh
ould reflect the composition of chondritic meteorites-which are thought to
represent the primordial material from which the Earth was formed. But the
non-chondritic abundance ratios recently found in several types of rock der
ived from the Earth's mantle(1-3) have been difficult to reconcile with sta
ndard models of the Earth's accretion(4-9), and have been interpreted as ha
ving arisen from the addition to the primitive mantle of either non-chondri
tic extraterrestrial material or differentiated material from the Earth's c
ore. Here we report in situ laser-ablation analyses of sulphides in mantle-
derived rocks which show that these sulphides do not have chondritic HSE pa
tterns, but that different generations of sulphide within single samples sh
ow extreme variability in the relative abundances of HSEs. Sulphides enclos
ed in silicate phases have high osmium and iridium abundances but low Pd/Ir
ratios, whereas pentlandite-dominated interstitial sulphides show low osmi
um and iridium abundances and high Pd/Ir ratios. We interpret the silicate-
enclosed sulphides as the residues of melting processes and interstitial su
lphides as the crystallization products of sulphide-bearing (metasomatic) f
luids. We suggest that non-chondritic HSE patterns directly reflect process
es occurring in the upper mantle-that is, melting and sulphide addition via
metasomatism-and are not evidence for the addition of core material or of
'exotic' meteoritic components.