Iron diapirs entrain silicates to the core and initiate thermochemical plumes

J. R. Fleck, C. L. Rains, D. S. Weeraratne (), C. T. Nguyen, D. M. Brand, S. M. Klein, J. M. McGehee, J. M. Rincon, Cintia Martinez and P. L. Olson
Additional contact information
J. R. Fleck: California State University, Northridge
C. L. Rains: California State University, Northridge
D. S. Weeraratne: California State University, Northridge
C. T. Nguyen: California State University, Northridge
D. M. Brand: California State University, Northridge
S. M. Klein: California State University, Northridge
J. M. McGehee: California State University, Northridge
J. M. Rincon: California State University, Northridge
P. L. Olson: University of New Mexico

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Abstract Segregation of the iron core from rocky silicates is a massive evolutionary event in planetary accretion, yet the process of metal segregation remains obscure, due to obstacles in simulating the extreme physical properties of liquid iron and silicates at finite length scales. We present new experimental results studying gravitational instability of an emulsified liquid gallium layer, initially at rest at the interface between two glucose solutions. Metal settling coats liquid metal drops with a film of low density material. The emulsified metal pond descends as a coherent Rayleigh−Taylor instability with a trailing fluid-filled conduit. Scaling to planetary interiors and high pressure mineral experiments indicates that molten silicates and volatiles are entrained toward the iron core and initiate buoyant thermochemical plumes that later oxidize and hydrate the upper mantle. Surface volcanism from thermochemical plumes releases oxygen and volatiles linking atmospheric growth to the Earth’s mantle and core processes.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02503-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-017-02503-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-02503-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().