Physics
Scientific paper
Nov 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992pepi...74...23f&link_type=abstract
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Volume 74, Issue 1-2, p. 23-28.
Physics
4
Scientific paper
According to the so-called olivine flotation hypothesis, basic silicate liquids become denser than coexisting ultramafic crystalline peridotites at high pressures through their higher compressibility. Therefore, the olivine, crystallizing from a global magma ocean, settles to a neutrally buoyant zone at about 250 km depth dividing the molten outer part of the Earth into two oceans separated by a dunite septum. The thermal evolution of such a divided global magma ocean is investigated using simple stability estimates and cooling time calculations. It appears that the cooling times and styles of convection (overturn, penetrative, layered) depend strongly on the surface temperature. Overturn convection leads to a compleate destruction of the dunite septum while in the case of penetrative convection the septum is only partly passed through. Thus, separate chemical evolution of the two mantle regions operates only at high surface temperatures near the solidus of mantle silicates of about 1500 K and cooling times of about 105 years.
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