TY - JOUR
T1 - Growth kinetics of FeS melt in partially molten peridotite
T2 - An analog for core-forming processes
AU - Yoshino, Takashi
AU - Watson, E. Bruce
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank D. Wark and K. Becker for assistance with the acquisitions of BSE images. We are grateful to H. Watson, D. Yamazaki, M.J. Walter, E. Ito, T. Katsura for discussion. The starting powder of spinel lherzolite (KLB-1) was kindly provided by E. Takahashi. Constructive reviews by G. Hirth, and an anonymous reviewer aided in improving the manuscript. This work was supported by the Research Fellowships to T. Y. from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science for Young Scientists, and by the U.S. National Science Foundation grant to E.B. Watson (no. EAR-0337481).
PY - 2005/6/30
Y1 - 2005/6/30
N2 - The growth kinetics of molten FeS pools in partially molten peridotite were investigated by time-series experiments in a piston-cylinder apparatus. The starting materials were mixed powders of peridotite +FeS, with FeS = 6%, 12% and 18% by volume in order to characterize the effect of volume fraction on the growth laws of FeS. The initial particle size of FeS was about 3.5 μm. The samples were annealed at temperatures between 1573 and 1723 K at 1.5 GPa for durations ranging from a few seconds to 100 h. The size of FeS pools was determined by analysis of backscattered electron images. The increase of pool size (G) of FeS with time (t) follows a growth law: Gn - G0 n = k · t (k = k0 exp(-Q/RT)). Samples with higher FeS volume fraction have larger pool size at the same conditions. The growth exponent (n) at 1573 K strongly depends on initial volume fraction of FeS and varies between ∼2.6 and ∼6.4, whereas those at 1723 K are almost constant (∼2.3) irrespective of the initial volume fraction. The growth exponent (n) tends to decrease with increasing temperature and volume fraction of silicate melt for each run series of different initial volume fraction of FeS. Low volume fractions of FeS and silicate melt leads to sluggish growth of the pools due to pinning of the silicate mineral phases. The activation enthalpy for pool growth is 331 ± 40 kJ/mol based on the results from samples with 18 vol.% FeS, which show the smallest variation of growth exponent over a range of temperature. These FeS coarsening experiments may serve as tentative analogs for the behavior of a liquid metal phase in hot proto-planetary objects. Assuming exponential heating of such bodies in the early solar system - and allowing for a significant Zener pinning effect of Fe pools - the time spent above the silicate solidus may be insufficient to grow the pools beyond the size where diffusive equilibration with the silicate surroundings can be maintained: in other words, diffusive equilibration may assured because of slow coarsening kinetics.
AB - The growth kinetics of molten FeS pools in partially molten peridotite were investigated by time-series experiments in a piston-cylinder apparatus. The starting materials were mixed powders of peridotite +FeS, with FeS = 6%, 12% and 18% by volume in order to characterize the effect of volume fraction on the growth laws of FeS. The initial particle size of FeS was about 3.5 μm. The samples were annealed at temperatures between 1573 and 1723 K at 1.5 GPa for durations ranging from a few seconds to 100 h. The size of FeS pools was determined by analysis of backscattered electron images. The increase of pool size (G) of FeS with time (t) follows a growth law: Gn - G0 n = k · t (k = k0 exp(-Q/RT)). Samples with higher FeS volume fraction have larger pool size at the same conditions. The growth exponent (n) at 1573 K strongly depends on initial volume fraction of FeS and varies between ∼2.6 and ∼6.4, whereas those at 1723 K are almost constant (∼2.3) irrespective of the initial volume fraction. The growth exponent (n) tends to decrease with increasing temperature and volume fraction of silicate melt for each run series of different initial volume fraction of FeS. Low volume fractions of FeS and silicate melt leads to sluggish growth of the pools due to pinning of the silicate mineral phases. The activation enthalpy for pool growth is 331 ± 40 kJ/mol based on the results from samples with 18 vol.% FeS, which show the smallest variation of growth exponent over a range of temperature. These FeS coarsening experiments may serve as tentative analogs for the behavior of a liquid metal phase in hot proto-planetary objects. Assuming exponential heating of such bodies in the early solar system - and allowing for a significant Zener pinning effect of Fe pools - the time spent above the silicate solidus may be insufficient to grow the pools beyond the size where diffusive equilibration with the silicate surroundings can be maintained: in other words, diffusive equilibration may assured because of slow coarsening kinetics.
KW - Core formation
KW - FeS
KW - Growth rate
KW - Iron droplet
KW - Magma ocean
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U2 - 10.1016/j.epsl.2005.04.021
DO - 10.1016/j.epsl.2005.04.021
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:20544463589
SN - 0012-821X
VL - 235
SP - 453
EP - 468
JO - Earth and Planetary Science Letters
JF - Earth and Planetary Science Letters
IS - 1-2
ER -