Potassium and the earth's core

Details Potassium and the earth's core Potassium and the earth's core

Nov 1986

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1986georl..13.1145l&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters (ISSN 0094-8276), vol. 13, Nov. 1986, p. 1145-1148.

Physics

6

Earth Core, Planetary Composition, Potassium, Electron Transitions, High Pressure, Iron, Mars (Planet), Venus (Planet)

Scientific paper

The hypothesis that the earth's 'missing' K may be chemically fractionated into the iron core is examined, in terms of atomic size and electronic structure between K and Fe metals at high pressures. The very compressible nature and possible 4s - 3d electronic transitions of K at high pressures would permit K to be chemically fractionated into the earth's iron core. Models which exclude K from the core on the basis of size and electronic structure are thus inadequate. However, evidence that the terrestrial depletion of K is not due to segregation of K into the core can be inferred from the similar depletion of K on Venus and Mars. The central pressure in Mars is too low for K to enter a metallic core. However, the K/U ratios for SNC meteorites overlap terrestrial and Venusian values, implying that the planetary depletion in K relative to CI abundances, is characteristic of the inner solar system.

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