Nitrogen Solubility in Core Materials
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Date
2018-08-16
Publication Type
Journal Article
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yes
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Abstract
During accretion, nitrogen was distributed between metal melt, silicate melt, and the atmosphere and today's N deficit of bulk silicate Earth with respect to chondrites may be due to segregation into the core and/or atmospheric losses. To examine the former, we experimentally determined N solubilities in Fe‐dominated metal melts at 1200–1800 °C, 0.4–9.0 GPa. Results show that pressure has a strong positive influence on N solubility, increasing from 1.0 to 7.4 wt% at 1–9 GPa (1400 °C) while temperature has the inverse effect, N solubility decreasing from 1.3 to 0.6 wt% at 1200–1800 °C (1 GPa). The solubility data are parameterized as function of pressure and temperature. Our results suggest that core‐forming metal melts can dissolve large quantities of N, and the potential N contribution to the Earth's core density deficit could hence be much larger than previously assumed. Most importantly, N in the deep reduced mantle should be stored in the small metal fractions and not in silicates.
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Publication status
published
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Book title
Journal / series
Volume
45 (15)
Pages / Article No.
7434 - 7443
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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Edition / version
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Date collected
Date created
Subject
nitrogen solubility; core formation; early Earth
Organisational unit
03592 - Schmidt, Max / Schmidt, Max
Notes
Funding
166153 - Carbon and nitrogen transfer on the early and in the deep Earth (SNF)