Abstract Statistical analyses of Sm-Eu-Gd concentrations in more than 3000 samples from the upper, middle, and lower continental crust reveal that the enrichment of Eu in the lower continental crust cannot compensate for the Eu deficit in the upper and middle continental crust, leaving the bulk continental crust with a significant negative Eu anomaly. Because the building blocks of the continental crust (mantle-derived basalts or tonalitic slab melts) do not possess a negative Eu anomaly, removal of Eu-enriched lower continental crust is required. Using Sm-Eu-Gd systematics and a mass conservation model, at least (95% confidence) crustal masses (∼ 6× 1022 kg) appear to have been lost to the mantle over Earth’s history via lower crustal recycling. Such a lower crustal component in the mantle may reappear in some ocean island basalts that have positive Eu anomalies and unradiogenic Pb isotopes.