Insufficient Energy From MgO Exsolution to Power Early Geodynamo

Du, Zhixue; Jackson, Colin; Bennett, Neil; Driscoll, Peter; Deng, Jie; Lee, Kanani K.  M.; Greenberg, Eran; Prakapenka, Vitali B.; Fei, Yingwei

doi:10.1002/2017GL075283

Title: Insufficient Energy From MgO Exsolution to Power Early Geodynamo

Journal Article · Mon Nov 13 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075283· OSTI ID:1423342

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Carnegie Inst. of Washington, Washington, DC (United States)
Carnegie Inst. of Washington, Washington, DC (United States); Smithsonian Inst., Washington, DC (United States). National Museum of Natural History
Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States). Center for Advanced Radiation Sources (CARS)

The origin of Earth's ancient magnetic field is an outstanding problem. It has recently been proposed that exsolution of MgO from the core may provide sufficient energy to drive an early geodynamo. Here, in this work, we present new experiments on Mg partitioning between iron-rich liquids and silicate/oxide melts. Our results indicate that Mg partitioning depends strongly on the oxygen content in the iron-rich liquid, in contrast to previous findings that it depends only on temperature. Consequently, MgO exsolution during core cooling is drastically reduced and insufficient to drive an early geodynamo alone. Using the new experimental data, our thermal model predicts inner core nucleation at ~850 Ma and a nearly constant paleointensity.

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Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)

Sponsoring Organization:: Carnegie Fellowship; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division

Grant/Contract Number:: EAR-1447311; EAR-1321956; EAR-1551348; EAR-1128799; FG02-94ER14466; AC02-06CH11357; AC02‐06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1423342

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1410579

Journal Information:: Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 44, Issue 22; ISSN 0094-8276

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: ENGLISH

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Cited by: 24 works

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Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Investigation of Molten Fe–Si–O in Earth's Core Huang, Dongyang; Badro, James; Brodholt, John Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 46, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019gl082722	journal	June 2019
Heat Flow in Earth's Core From Invariant Electrical Resistivity of Fe‐Si on the Melting Boundary to 9 GPa: Do Light Elements Matter? Silber, Reynold E.; Secco, Richard A.; Yong, Wenjun Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 124, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jb017375	journal	June 2019
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