Redox state of Earth’s magma ocean and its Venus-like early atmosphere
Abstract
Exchange between a magma ocean and vapor produced Earth’s earliest atmosphere. Its speciation depends on the oxygen fugacity (fO2) set by the Fe3+/Fe2+ ratio of the magma ocean at its surface. Here, we establish the relationship between fO2 and Fe3+/Fe2+ in quenched liquids of silicate Earth-like composition at 2173 K and 1 bar. Mantle-derived rocks have Fe3+/(Fe3++Fe2+) = 0.037 ± 0.005, at which the magma ocean defines an fO2 0.5 log units above the iron-wüstite buffer. At this fO2, the solubilities of H-C-N-O species in the magma ocean produce a CO-rich atmosphere. Cooling and condensation of H2O would have led to a prebiotic terrestrial atmosphere composed of CO2-N2, in proportions and at pressures akin to those observed on Venus. Present-day differences between Earth’s atmosphere and those of her planetary neighbors result from Earth’s heliocentric location and mass, which allowed geologically long-lived oceans, in-turn facilitating CO2 drawdown and, eventually, the development of life.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[2];
[4];
[4];
[2]
- ETH Zürich (Switzerland); Univ. of Paris (France)
- Australian National Univ., Canberra, ACT (Australia)
- Univ. of Paris (France)
- Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1729695
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Science Advances
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 6; Journal Issue: 48; Journal ID: ISSN 2375-2548
- Publisher:
- AAAS
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
- Subject:
- 58 GEOSCIENCES
Citation Formats
Sossi, Paolo A., Burnham, Antony D., Badro, James, Lanzirotti, Antonio, Newville, Matt, and O’Neill, Hugh St.C.. Redox state of Earth’s magma ocean and its Venus-like early atmosphere. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abd1387.
Sossi, Paolo A., Burnham, Antony D., Badro, James, Lanzirotti, Antonio, Newville, Matt, & O’Neill, Hugh St.C.. Redox state of Earth’s magma ocean and its Venus-like early atmosphere. United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd1387
Sossi, Paolo A., Burnham, Antony D., Badro, James, Lanzirotti, Antonio, Newville, Matt, and O’Neill, Hugh St.C.. Wed .
"Redox state of Earth’s magma ocean and its Venus-like early atmosphere". United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abd1387. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1729695.
@article{osti_1729695,
title = {Redox state of Earth’s magma ocean and its Venus-like early atmosphere},
author = {Sossi, Paolo A. and Burnham, Antony D. and Badro, James and Lanzirotti, Antonio and Newville, Matt and O’Neill, Hugh St.C.},
abstractNote = {Exchange between a magma ocean and vapor produced Earth’s earliest atmosphere. Its speciation depends on the oxygen fugacity (fO2) set by the Fe3+/Fe2+ ratio of the magma ocean at its surface. Here, we establish the relationship between fO2 and Fe3+/Fe2+ in quenched liquids of silicate Earth-like composition at 2173 K and 1 bar. Mantle-derived rocks have Fe3+/(Fe3++Fe2+) = 0.037 ± 0.005, at which the magma ocean defines an fO2 0.5 log units above the iron-wüstite buffer. At this fO2, the solubilities of H-C-N-O species in the magma ocean produce a CO-rich atmosphere. Cooling and condensation of H2O would have led to a prebiotic terrestrial atmosphere composed of CO2-N2, in proportions and at pressures akin to those observed on Venus. Present-day differences between Earth’s atmosphere and those of her planetary neighbors result from Earth’s heliocentric location and mass, which allowed geologically long-lived oceans, in-turn facilitating CO2 drawdown and, eventually, the development of life.},
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.abd1387},
journal = {Science Advances},
number = 48,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {2020},
month = {11}
}
Free Publicly Available Full Text
Publisher's Version of Record
Other availability
Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal
Save to My Library
You must Sign In or Create an Account in order to save documents to your library.
Works referenced in this record:
Nitrogen solubility in basaltic melt. Part I. Effect of oxygen fugacity
journal, November 2003
- Libourel, G.; Marty, B.; Humbert, F.
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 67, Issue 21
The origins and concentrations of water, carbon, nitrogen and noble gases on Earth
journal, January 2012
- Marty, Bernard
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 313-314
Melting of Garnet Peridotite and the Origin of Komatiite and Depleted Lithosphere
journal, January 1998
- Walter, M.
- Journal of Petrology, Vol. 39, Issue 1
The oxidation state of Hadean magmas and implications for early Earth’s atmosphere
journal, November 2011
- Trail, Dustin; Watson, E. Bruce; Tailby, Nicholas D.
- Nature, Vol. 480, Issue 7375
The oxidation state of iron in Mid-Ocean Ridge Basaltic (MORB) glasses: Implications for their petrogenesis and oxygen fugacities
journal, December 2018
- O'Neill, Hugh St. C.; Berry, Andrew J.; Mallmann, Guilherme
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 504
Creation and Evolution of Impact-generated Reduced Atmospheres of Early Earth
journal, May 2020
- Zahnle, Kevin J.; Lupu, Roxana; Catling, David C.
- The Planetary Science Journal, Vol. 1, Issue 1
Ratios of S, Se and Te in the silicate Earth require a volatile-rich late veneer
journal, July 2013
- Wang, Zaicong; Becker, Harry
- Nature, Vol. 499, Issue 7458
Linking the evolution of terrestrial interiors and an early outgassed atmosphere to astrophysical observations
journal, November 2019
- Bower, Dan J.; Kitzmann, Daniel; Wolf, Aaron S.
- Astronomy & Astrophysics, Vol. 631
Ruthenium isotope vestige of Earth’s pre-late-veneer mantle preserved in Archaean rocks
journal, March 2020
- Fischer-Gödde, Mario; Elfers, Bo-Magnus; Münker, Carsten
- Nature, Vol. 579, Issue 7798
Magma ocean influence on early atmosphere mass and composition
journal, August 2012
- Hirschmann, Marc M.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 341-344
Carbonation and the Urey reaction
journal, October 2019
- Kellogg, Louise H.; Lokavarapu, Harsha; Turcotte, Donald L.
- American Mineralogist, Vol. 104, Issue 10
Initiation of clement surface conditions on the earliest Earth
journal, March 2001
- Sleep, N. H.; Zahnle, K.; Neuhoff, P. S.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 98, Issue 7
The inception of the oceans and CO2-atmosphere in the early history of the Earth
journal, November 2004
- Liu, Lin-gun
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 227, Issue 3-4
Oxygen Thermobarometry of Orogenic Lherzolite Massifs
journal, February 1992
- Woodland, A. B.; Kornprobst, J.; Wood, B. J.
- Journal of Petrology, Vol. 33, Issue 1
Delivery of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur to the silicate Earth by a giant impact
journal, January 2019
- Grewal, Damanveer S.; Dasgupta, Rajdeep; Sun, Chenguang
- Science Advances, Vol. 5, Issue 1
Synthesis of amorphous MgO-rich peridotitic starting material for laser-heated diamond anvil cell experiments – application to iron partitioning in the mantle
journal, March 2011
- Auzende, Anne-Line; Gillot, Jessy; Coquet, Annabelle
- High Pressure Research, Vol. 31, Issue 1
Atmospheric Evolution of the Terrestrial Planets
journal, February 1993
- Hunten, D. M.
- Science, Vol. 259, Issue 5097
Deep magma ocean formation set the oxidation state of Earth’s mantle
journal, August 2019
- Armstrong, Katherine; Frost, Daniel J.; McCammon, Catherine A.
- Science, Vol. 365, Issue 6456
Redox States of Initial Atmospheres Outgassed on Rocky Planets and Planetesimals
journal, July 2017
- Schaefer, Laura; Fegley, Bruce
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 843, Issue 2
Near-solidus Melting of the Shallow Upper Mantle: Partial Melting Experiments on Depleted Peridotite
journal, July 2003
- Wasylenki, L. E.
- Journal of Petrology, Vol. 44, Issue 7
The Atmospheres of Earthlike Planets After Giant Impact Events
journal, February 2014
- Lupu, R. E.; Zahnle, Kevin; Marley, Mark S.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 784, Issue 1
The oxidation state of the mantle and the extraction of carbon from Earth’s interior
journal, January 2013
- Stagno, Vincenzo; Ojwang, Dickson O.; McCammon, Catherine A.
- Nature, Vol. 493, Issue 7430
The composition of the Earth
journal, March 1995
- McDonough, W. F.; Sun, S. -s.
- Chemical Geology, Vol. 120, Issue 3-4
Connectivity of melt phase in a partially molten peridotite
journal, January 1986
- Toramaru, Atsushi; Fujii, Naoyuki
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 91, Issue B9
Empirical models relating viscosity and tracer diffusion in magmatic silicate melts
journal, January 2002
- Mungall, James E.
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 66, Issue 1
A Reassessment of Prebiotic Organic Synthesis in Neutral Planetary Atmospheres
journal, January 2008
- Cleaves, H. James; Chalmers, John H.; Lazcano, Antonio
- Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, Vol. 38, Issue 2
A Mössbauer study of the oxidation state of Fe in silicate melts
journal, November 2004
- Jayasuriya, Kasthuri D.; O’Neill, Hugh St. C.; Berry, Andrew J.
- American Mineralogist, Vol. 89, Issue 11-12
Low-calcium garnet harzburgites from southern Africa: their relations to craton structure and diamond crystallization
journal, March 1993
- Boyd, F. R.; Pearson, D. G.; Nixon, P. H.
- Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 113, Issue 3
Evaporation of moderately volatile elements from silicate melts: experiments and theory
journal, September 2019
- Sossi, Paolo A.; Klemme, Stephan; O'Neill, Hugh St. C.
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 260
Variation in oxygen fugacity with depth in the upper mantle beneath the Kaapvaal craton, Southern Africa
journal, September 2003
- Woodland, A. B.; Koch, M.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 214, Issue 1-2
Methane, Carbon Monoxide, and Ammonia in Brown Dwarfs and Self-Luminous Giant Planets
journal, November 2014
- Zahnle, Kevin J.; Marley, Mark S.
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 797, Issue 1
Runaway and moist greenhouse atmospheres and the evolution of Earth and Venus
journal, June 1988
- Kasting, James F.
- Icarus, Vol. 74, Issue 3
Substantial hydrogen solubility in olivine and implications for water storage in the mantle
journal, June 1992
- Bai, Quan; Kohlstedt, D. L.
- Nature, Vol. 357, Issue 6380
Graphite floatation on a magma ocean and the fate of carbon during core formation
journal, July 2019
- Keppler, H.; Golabek, G.
- Geochemical Perspectives Letters
X-ray microprobe analysis of iron oxidation states in silicates and oxides using X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES)
journal, December 1994
- Bajt, S.; Sutton, S. R.; Delaney, J. S.
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 58, Issue 23
The redox state of the mantle during and just after core formation
journal, September 2008
- Frost, D. J.; Mann, U.; Asahara, Y.
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 366, Issue 1883
Volcanism and Tectonics on Venus
journal, May 1998
- Nimmo, F.; McKenzie, D.
- Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Vol. 26, Issue 1
Ferric iron in peridotites and mantle oxidation states
journal, May 1994
- Canil, D.; O'Neill, H. St. C.; Pearson, D. G.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 123, Issue 1-3
Building Terrestrial Planets
journal, May 2012
- Morbidelli, A.; Lunine, J. I.; O'Brien, D. P.
- Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Vol. 40, Issue 1
Volatile accretion history of the terrestrial planets and dynamic implications
journal, October 2009
- Albarède, Francis
- Nature, Vol. 461, Issue 7268
Degassing of reduced carbon from planetary basalts
journal, April 2013
- Wetzel, D. T.; Rutherford, M. J.; Jacobsen, S. D.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, Issue 20
Distribution of Ferric Iron in some Upper-Mantle Assemblages
journal, January 1996
- Canil, Dante; O'Neill, Hugh St. C.
- Journal of Petrology, Vol. 37, Issue 3
Reprint of: FactSage thermochemical software and databases, 2010–2016
journal, December 2016
- Bale, C. W.; Bélisle, E.; Chartrand, P.
- Calphad, Vol. 55
Ferric iron in orogenic lherzolite massifs and controls of oxygen fugacity in the upper mantle
journal, June 2006
- Woodland, A. B.; Kornprobst, J.; Tabit, A.
- Lithos, Vol. 89, Issue 1-2
Multi-spectroscopic study of Fe(II) in silicate glasses: Implications for the coordination environment of Fe(II) in silicate melts
journal, September 2005
- Jackson, William E.; Farges, Francois; Yeager, Mark
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 69, Issue 17
Secular mantle oxidation across the Archean-Proterozoic boundary: Evidence from V partitioning in komatiites and picrites
journal, April 2019
- Nicklas, Robert W.; Puchtel, Igor S.; Ash, Richard D.
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 250
Melting of a dry peridotite KLB-1 up to 14 GPa: Implications on the Origin of peridotitic upper mantle
journal, January 1986
- Takahashi, Eiichi
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 91, Issue B9
The origin of volatiles in the E arth's mantle
journal, August 2017
- Hier‐Majumder, Saswata; Hirschmann, Marc M.
- Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, Vol. 18, Issue 8
Modification of a proto-lunar disk by hydrodynamic escape of silicate vapor
journal, January 2003
- Genda, Hidenori; Abe, Yutaka
- Earth, Planets and Space, Vol. 55, Issue 1
Diffusion Data in Silicate Melts
journal, January 2010
- Zhang, Y.; Ni, H.; Chen, Y.
- Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry, Vol. 72, Issue 1
The Crystal/Melt Partitioning of V during Mantle Melting as a Function of Oxygen Fugacity Compared with some other Elements (Al, P, Ca, Sc, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ga, Y, Zr and Nb)
journal, September 2009
- Mallmann, Guilherme; O’Neill, Hugh St. C.
- Journal of Petrology, Vol. 50, Issue 9
Experimental determination of the solubility of carbon dioxide in molten basalt at low pressure
journal, March 1988
- Stolper, Edward; Holloway, John R.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 87, Issue 4
The effect of melt composition on trace element partitioning: an experimental investigation of the activity coefficients of FeO, NiO, CoO, MoO2 and MoO3 in silicate melts
journal, June 2002
- O'Neill, Hugh St. C.; Eggins, Stephen M.
- Chemical Geology, Vol. 186, Issue 1-2
The mineralogy, geochemistry and origin of Iherzolite inclusions in Victorian basanites
journal, July 1974
- Frey, Frederick A.; Green, David H.
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 38, Issue 7
Origin and evolution of the atmospheres of early Venus, Earth and Mars
journal, May 2018
- Lammer, Helmut; Zerkle, Aubrey L.; Gebauer, Stefanie
- The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review, Vol. 26, Issue 1
On the Early Chemical History of the Earth and the Origin of Life
journal, April 1952
- Urey, H. C.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 38, Issue 4
An empirical model for the solubility of H 2 O in magmas to 3 kilobars
journal, February 1998
- Moore, Gordon; Vennemann, Torsten; Carmichael, I. S. E.
- American Mineralogist, Vol. 83, Issue 1-2
Solubility of Water in Albite-Melt Determined by the Weight-Loss Method
journal, July 1986
- Hamilton, D. L.; Oxtoby, S.
- The Journal of Geology, Vol. 94, Issue 4
The Delivery of Water During Terrestrial Planet Formation
journal, February 2018
- O’Brien, David P.; Izidoro, Andre; Jacobson, Seth A.
- Space Science Reviews, Vol. 214, Issue 1
The pressure and temperature dependence of carbon dioxide solubility in tholeiitic basalt melts
journal, June 1991
- Pan, Vivian; Holloway, John R.; Hervig, Richard L.
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 55, Issue 6
Evidence for a reducing Archean ambient mantle and its effects on the carbon cycle
journal, July 2016
- Aulbach, Sonja; Stagno, Vincenzo
- Geology, Vol. 44, Issue 9
Carbon solubility in silicate melts in equilibrium with a CO-CO2 gas phase and graphite
journal, August 2019
- Yoshioka, Takahiro; Nakashima, Daisuke; Nakamura, Tomoki
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 259
The Fe3+/ΣFe ratios of MORB glasses and their implications for mantle melting
journal, February 2005
- Bézos, Antoine; Humler, Eric
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 69, Issue 3
The Rarity of the Inert Gases on the Earth
journal, November 1924
- Aston, F. W.
- Nature, Vol. 114, Issue 2874
A re-assessment of the oxidation state of iron in MORB glasses
journal, February 2018
- Berry, Andrew J.; Stewart, Glen A.; O'Neill, Hugh St. C.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 483
Water in silicate glasses: An infrared spectroscopic study
journal, January 1982
- Stolper, Edward
- Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 81, Issue 1
The compressibility of silicate liquids containing Fe2O3 and the effect of composition, temperature, oxygen fugacity and pressure on their redox states
journal, July 1991
- Kress, Victor C.; Carmichael, Ian S. E.
- Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 108, Issue 1-2
Primordial Oil Slick
journal, October 1971
- Lasaga, A. C.; Holland, H. D.; Dwyer, M. J.
- Science, Vol. 174, Issue 4004
Comparative deep Earth volatile cycles: The case for C recycling from exosphere/mantle fractionation of major (H2O, C, N) volatiles and from H2O/Ce, CO2/Ba, and CO2/Nb exosphere ratios
journal, November 2018
- Hirschmann, Marc M.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 502
Solubility of molecular hydrogen in silicate melts and consequences for volatile evolution of terrestrial planets
journal, September 2012
- Hirschmann, M. M.; Withers, A. C.; Ardia, P.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 345-348
What Factors Affect the Duration and Outgassing of the Terrestrial Magma Ocean?
journal, April 2019
- Nikolaou, Athanasia; Katyal, Nisha; Tosi, Nicola
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 875, Issue 1
A Production of Amino Acids Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions
journal, May 1953
- Miller, S. L.
- Science, Vol. 117, Issue 3046
The oxidation state of Fe in MORB glasses and the oxygen fugacity of the upper mantle
journal, May 2011
- Cottrell, Elizabeth; Kelley, Katherine A.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 305, Issue 3-4
Major and trace element composition of the depleted MORB mantle (DMM)
journal, February 2005
- Workman, Rhea K.; Hart, Stanley R.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 231, Issue 1-2
Vaporization of the Earth: Application to Exoplanet Atmospheres
journal, July 2012
- Schaefer, Laura; Lodders, Katharina; Fegley, Bruce
- The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 755, Issue 1
Plate tectonics on the terrestrial planets
journal, May 2004
- van Thienen, P.; Vlaar, N. J.; van den Berg, A. P.
- Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Vol. 142, Issue 1-2
Volatiles on Earth and Mars: A comparison
journal, August 1987
- Dreibus, G.; Wa¨nke, H.
- Icarus, Vol. 71, Issue 2
Earth's Earliest Atmospheres
journal, June 2010
- Zahnle, K.; Schaefer, L.; Fegley, B.
- Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, Vol. 2, Issue 10
Ferric/ferrous ratio in silicate melts: a new model for 1 atm data with special emphasis on the effects of melt composition
journal, November 2018
- Borisov, Alexander; Behrens, Harald; Holtz, Francois
- Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Vol. 173, Issue 12
Nebular ingassing as a source of volatiles to the Terrestrial planets
journal, January 2017
- Sharp, Zachary D.
- Chemical Geology, Vol. 448
Chemical evolution of the terrestrial planets
journal, January 1966
- Ringwood, A. E.
- Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, Vol. 30, Issue 1
Carbon, carbides, carbonates and carbonatitic melts in the Earth's interior
journal, January 2019
- Stagno, Vincenzo
- Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. 176, Issue 2
Linked magma ocean solidification and atmospheric growth for Earth and Mars
journal, July 2008
- Elkins-Tanton, L. T.
- Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 271, Issue 1-4