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Register a new userWhat factors affect the duration and outgassing of the terrestrial magma ocean?
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The magma ocean (MO) is a crucial stage in the build-up of terrestrial planets. Its solidification and the accompanying outgassing of volatiles set the conditions for important processes occurring later or even simultaneously, such as solid-state mantle convection and atmospheric escape. To constrain the duration of a global-scale Earth MO we have built and applied a 1D interior model coupled alternatively with a grey H2O/CO2 atmosphere or with a pure H2O atmosphere treated with a line-by-line model described in a companion paper by Katyal et al. (2019). We study in detail the effects of several factors affecting the MO lifetime, such as the initial abundance of H2O and CO2, the convection regime, the viscosity, the mantle melting temperature, and the longwave radiation absorption from the atmosphere. In this specifically multi-variable system we assess the impact of each factor with respect to a reference setting commonly assumed in the literature. We find that the MO stage can last from a few thousand to several million years. By coupling the interior model with the line-by-line atmosphere model, we identify the conditions that determine whether the planet experiences a transient magma ocean or it ceases to cool and maintains a continuous magma ocean. We find a dependence of this distinction simultaneously on the mass of the outgassed H2O atmosphere and on the MO surface melting temperature. We discuss their combined impact on the MOs lifetime in addition to the known dependence on albedo, orbital distance and stellar luminosity and we note observational degeneracies that arise thereby for target exoplanets.
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The energy associated with giant impacts is large enough to generate global magma oceans during Earths accretion. However, geochemical evidence requiring a terrestrial magma ocean is scarce. Here we present evidence for at least two separate magma ocean outgassing episodes on Earth based on the ratio of primordial 3He to 22Ne in the present-day mantle. We demonstrate that the depleted mantle 3He/22Ne ratio is at least 10 while a more primitive mantle reservoir has a 3He/22Ne ratio of 2.3 to 3. The 3He/22Ne ratios of the mantle reservoirs are higher than possible sources of terrestrial volatiles, including the solar nebula ratio of 1.5. Therefore, a planetary process must have raised the mantles 3He/22Ne ratio. We show that long-term plate tectonic cycling is incapable of raising the mantle 3He/22Ne ratio and may even lower it. However, ingassing of a gravitationally accreted nebular atmosphere into a magma ocean on the proto-Earth explains the 3He/22Ne and 20Ne/22Ne ratios of the primitive mantle reservoir. Increasing the mantle 3He/22Ne ratio to a value of 10 in the depleted mantle requires at least two episodes of atmospheric blow-off and magma ocean outgassing associated with giant impacts during subsequent terrestrial accretion. The preservation of a low 3He/22Ne ratio in a primitive reservoir sampled by plumes suggests that the later giant impacts, including the Moon-forming giant impact, did not generate a whole mantle magma ocean. Atmospheric loss episodes associated with giant impacts provide an explanation for Earths subchondritic C/H, N/H, and Cl/F elemental ratios while preserving chondritic isotopic ratios. If so, a significant proportion of terrestrial water and potentially other major volatiles were accreted prior to the last giant impact, otherwise the fractionated elemental ratios would have been overprinted by the late veneer.
Recent observations of the potentially habitable planets TRAPPIST-1 e, f, and g suggest that they possess large water mass fractions of possibly several tens of wt% of water, even though the host stars activity should drive rapid atmospheric escape. These processes can photolyze water, generating free oxygen and possibly desiccating the planet. After the planets formed, their mantles were likely completely molten with volatiles dissolving and exsolving from the melt. In order to understand these planets and prepare for future observations, the magma ocean phase of these worlds must be understood. To simulate these planets, we have combined existing models of stellar evolution, atmospheric escape, tidal heating, radiogenic heating, magma ocean cooling, planetary radiation, and water-oxygen-iron geochemistry. We present MagmOc, a versatile magma ocean evolution model, validated against the rocky Super-Earth GJ 1132b and early Earth. We simulate the coupled magma ocean-atmospheric evolution of TRAPPIST-1 e, f, and g for a range of tidal and radiogenic heating rates, as well as initial water contents between 1 and 100 Earth oceans. We also reanalyze the structures of these planets and find they have water mass fractions of 0-0.23, 0.01-0.21, and 0.11-0.24 for planets e, f, and g, respectively. Our model does not make a strong prediction about the water and oxygen content of the atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1 e at the time of mantle solidification. In contrast, the model predicts that TRAPPIST-1 f and g would have a thick steam atmosphere with a small amount of oxygen at that stage. For all planets that we investigated, we find that only 3-5% of the initial water will be locked in the mantle after the magma ocean solidified.
Here, we develop scaling laws for (1) the distribution of impact-induced heat within the mantle and (2) shape of the impact-induced melt based on more than 100 smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) simulations. We use Legendre polynomials to describe these scaling laws and determine their coefficients by linear regression, minimizing the error between our model and SPH simulations. The input parameters are the impact angle $theta$ ($0^{circ}, 30^{circ}, 60^{circ}$, and $90^{circ}$), total mass $M_T$ ($1M_{rm Mars}-53M_{rm Mars}$, where $M_{rm Mars}$ is the mass of Mars), impact velocity $v_{rm imp}$ ($v_{rm esc} - 2v_{rm esc}$, where $v_{rm esc}$ is the mutual escape velocity), and impactor-to-total mass ratio $gamma$ ($0.03-0.5$). We find that the equilibrium pressure at the base of a melt pool can be higher (up to $approx 80 %$) than those of radially-uniform global magma ocean models. This could have a significant impact on element partitioning. These melt scaling laws are publicly available on GitHub ($href{https://github.com/mikinakajima/MeltScalingLaw}{https://github.com/mikinakajima/MeltScalingLaw}$).
Terrestrial exoplanets likely form initial atmospheres through outgassing during and after accretion, although there is currently no first-principles understanding of how to connect a planets bulk composition to its early atmospheric properties. Important insights into this connection can be gained by assaying meteorites, representative samples of planetary building blocks. We perform laboratory outgassing experiments that use a mass spectrometer to measure the abundances of volatiles released when meteorite samples are heated to 1200 $^{circ}$C. We find that outgassing from three carbonaceous chondrite samples consistently produce H$_2$O-rich (averaged ~66 %) atmospheres but with significant amounts of CO (~18 %) and CO$_2$ (~15 %) as well as smaller quantities of H$_2$ and H$_2$S (up to 1 %). These results provide experimental constraints on the initial chemical composition in theoretical models of terrestrial planet atmospheres, supplying abundances for principal gas species as a function of temperature.
The magma ocean period was a critical phase determining how Earth atmosphere developed into habitability. However there are major uncertainties in the role of key processes such as outgassing from the planetary interior and escape of species to space that play a major role in determining the atmosphere of early Earth. We investigate the influence of outgassing of various species and escape of H$_2$ for different mantle redox states upon the composition and evolution of the atmosphere for the magma ocean period. We include an important new atmosphere-interior coupling mechanism namely the redox evolution of the mantle which strongly affects the outgassing of species. We simulate the volatile outgassing and chemical speciation at the surface for various redox states of the mantle by employing a C-H-O based chemical speciation model combined with an interior outgassing model. We then apply a line-by-line radiative transfer model to study the remote appearance of the planet in terms of the infrared emission and transmission. Finally, we use a parameterized diffusion-limited and XUV energy-driven atmospheric escape model to calculate the loss of H$_2$ to space. We have simulated the thermal emission and transmission spectra for reduced or oxidized atmospheres present during the magma ocean period of Earth. Reduced or thin atmospheres consisting of H$_2$ in abundance emit more radiation to space and have larger effective height as compared to oxidized or thick atmospheres which are abundant in H$_2$O and CO$_2$. We obtain the outgassing rates of H2 from the mantle into the atmosphere to be a factor of ten times larger than the rates of diffusion-limited escape to space. Our work presents useful insight into the development of Earth atmosphere during the magma ocean period as well as input to guide future studies discussing exoplanetary interior compositions.
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