The Motion of Sulfide Phases in a Partially Molten Silicate Material: Application to the Problem of the Formation of Planetary Cores

Details The Motion of Sulfide Phases in a Partially Molten Silicate Material: Application to the Problem of the Formation of Planetary Cores The Motion of Sulfide Phases in a Partially Molten Silicate Material: Application to the Problem of the Formation of Planetary Cores

Sep 1999

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999sosyr..33..346l&link_type=abstract

Solar System Research, vol. 33, p. 346 (1999)

Physics

1

Scientific paper

A simulation of the migration and accumulation of sulfide phases (FeS) under gravity, with the partial fusion of a model planetary substance (olivine-basalt mixture), is carried out in a high-temperature centrifuge. The separation and motion of sulfides in the intercrystalline space is shown to be in an intimate relationship with the degree of fusion of a silicate material. If the amount of the melt of the silicate substance is less than 5-10 vol.%, the separation of the sulfide phases occurs throughout the volume of the specimen (matrix), and no motion of the sulfide melt in the gravitational field is observed. If the fraction of the silicate melt present in the space between the olivine crystals exceeds 5-10 vol.%, this quantity is enough to produce a set of mutually related channels between the grains, through which a percolation of silicate and sulfide liquids becomes possible. Droplets of the sulfide melt do not mix with the silicate melt and can move along the silicate intergranular channels under the influence of gravity. Thus, the mixture consisting of olivine crystals, silicate and sulfide melts, after being separated in a centrifuge, is differentiated in density. As a result, the sulfide and silicate phases are divided into independent layers. Based on the data obtained, the mechanisms of the chemical differentiation of planetary bodies and of the formation in them of iron-sulfide cores in the thermal and gravitational fields are discussed.

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