Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.v23h..02h&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #V23H-02
Physics
1009 Geochemical Modeling (3610, 8410), 5724 Interiors (8147), 8125 Evolution Of The Earth (0325), 8147 Planetary Interiors (5430, 5724, 6024)
Scientific paper
The metal-rainfall mechanism is thought to be responsible for the separation of metallic components from silicate components in a magma ocean on early Earth. This separation marks the first phase of core formation, which, besides delivering iron to the center of the Earth, may have produced today's abundances of siderophile elements. We have performed numerical studies to investigate the metallic rainfall mechanism, which we apply to the scenario of metal-silicate separation in a terrestrial magma ocean. Our results suggest that metallic rainfall is a possible mechanism based on dynamical arguments, which are founded on an extensive parameter study. We find additional support from the partitioning of Nickel between metal droplets and surrounding silicate. We furthermore show that the time scale of metal-silicate separation by metallic rainfall strongly depends on the viscosity of the liquid silicate. For reasonable viscosity assumptions, metal-silicate separation in a magma ocean could have occurred on the time scale of up to a hundred years. This implies that the initiation of core formation was very rapid.
Hansen Ulrich
Höink Tobias
Schmalzl Jörg
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