Fig. 5. Earth’s heterogeneous accretion of C–H–S during its main accretion phase.

a–c The C–H–S contents in proto-Earth’s atmosphere, mantle, and core as a function of mass fraction accreted. Note that the C–H–S contents in the proto-atmosphere is based on the proto-atmospheric C–H–S-mass normalized to the silicate Earth mass. d The C/N, C/H, and C/S ratios in the BSE (atmosphere + mantle) change as the mass of Earth accreted. The observed C and H contents in Earth’s present-day reservoirs were taken from ref. 51, and the S content in Earth’s present-day atmosphere and mantle were taken from ref. 59 and ref. 58, respectively. The error bars at ~99% accretion were based on ±2σ for the used metal/silicate partition coefficients. Note that the atmosphere in panel (a) represents Earth’s surface reservoir including atmosphere and crust, due to the condensation of water and deposit of CO₂ from atmosphere to crust. Source data are provided in Supplementary Data 5.