Magnesium solubility in metallic iron during core formation

Abstract:

Terrestrial core formation occurred by gravitational segregation of immiscible metal and silicate melts in an extensively molten proto-Earth. This stripped the bulk silicate Earth of most of its siderophile elements, which were concentrated in the core. The process occurs by virtue of partitioning through a redox reaction (e.g. [1]) whereby iron in the metal exchanges for a bonded siderophile element in the mantle. By performing metal-silicate equilibration experiments at extreme pressures and temperatures using the laser-heated diamond anvil cell, we find that the major lithophile component of the silicate Earth, namely MgO, can also become soluble in the metal. At close to 5000 K, our experiments show that up to 1.2 % MgO can be incorporated in the metal. We show that Mg incorporation in the metal isn’t a redox reaction as with siderophile element partitioning, but rather a direct solubility of the MgO component as temperatures approach the metal-silicate solvus; in that respect, our results are fully consistent with the recently calculated Fe-MgO solvus [2]. This confirms that significant amounts of magnesium could have been added to the early core, provided that a giant impact had generated the necessary temperature increase. The subsequent exsolution of MgO driven by core cooling would have provided a significant buoyancy source, likely sufficient to drive core convection and producing an ancient magnetic field [3].

[1] J. Wade and B. J. Wood, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 236, 78-95 (2005)

[2] S. M. Wahl and B. Militzer, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 410, 25–33 (2015)

[3] D. J. Stevenson, DI11C-03, Fall AGU 2012.