Iron mantle composition

Williams H, Lee D-C, Levasseur S, Teutsch N, Poitrasson R, Halliday AN (2002) Iron isotope composition of mid-ocean ridge basalts and mantle peridotites. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 66 A838... 

The mantle seems to be composed of silicon and oxygen and a little iron. Its composition apparently is like that of the stony meteorites which bombard the earth from space. 

The chemical composition of the Earth s interior determined the character (the oxidation state) of the primeval atmosphere. If metallic iron had collected in the Earth s core in the early phase of the accretion, the exhalations from the interior of the Earth would have consisted mainly of CO2 and H20, since the gas from the interior could only have come into contact with FeO and Fe203 silicates in the mantle. If, however, metallic iron had been distributed throughout the mantle, the iron and the FeO silicates would have had a reductive influence on the gases the gas exhaled into the atmosphere would then have consisted of CH4, H2 and NH3 (Whittet, 1997). 

The planets nearest the Sun have a high-temperature surface while those further away have a low temperature. The temperature depends on the closeness to the Sun, but it also depends on the chemical composition and zone structures of the individual planets and their sizes. In this respect Earth is a somewhat peculiar planet, we do not know whether it is unique or not in that its core has remained very hot, mainly due to gravitic compression and radioactive decay of some unstable isotopes, and loss of core heat has been restricted by a poorly conducting mainly oxide mantle. This heat still contributes very considerably to the overall temperature of the Earth s surface. The hot core, some of it solid, is composed of metals, mainly iron, while the mantle is largely of molten oxidic rocks until the thin surface of solid rocks of many different compositions, such as silicates, sulfides and carbonates, occurs. This is usually called the crust, below the oceans, and forms the continents of today. Water and the atmosphere are reached in further outward succession. We shall describe the relevant chemistry in more detail later here, we are concerned first with the temperature gradient from the interior to the surface (Figure 1.2). The Earth s surface, i.e. the crust, the sea and the atmosphere, is of... 

The Se/ Se ratios of CDT and 3 other iron meteorite samples were determined by Rouxel et al. (2002). CDT had the greatest ratio, and the other meteorites ranged from -0.2%o to -0.6%o relative to CDT. Four basaltic reference materials, two glassy MORB s, and one peridotite also analyzed by Rouxel et al. (2002) were within 0.2%o of CDT. These results suggest that the earth s mantle is close in Se isotope composition to CDT, and that CDT is, tentatively, a reasonable proxy for the bulk composition of the earth. 

Table 5.32 Compositions (in weight %) of natural pyroxenes (samples 1-5 from Deer et al., 1983 samples 6 and 7 from Bonatti et al., 1986) (1) enstatite from a pyroxenite (2) ferrosilite from a thermometamorphic iron band (3) hedembergite (4) chromian augite from a gabbroic rock of the Bushveld complex (5) aegirine from a riebeckite-albite granitoid (6) diopside from a mantle peridotite (7) enstatite from a mantle peridotite. ...

Irons are mostly fragments of asteroid cores. As with achondrites, their compositional variations reflect differences in parent body chemistry as well as changes wrought by crystallization. Pallasites may represent samples of core-mantle boundaries, and meso-siderites indicate poorly understood mixing of crust and core materials, probably by impact. 

Estimates of the Mars core composition by the authors listed above suggest it is made of metal plus iron sulfide, the latter varying from 29 to 44 wt.%. Abundances of siderophile (tungsten, phosphorus, cobalt, molybdenum, nickel) and chalcophile (indium, copper) elements in the mantle (Fig. 13.23) are consistent with equilibrium between sulfide, metal, and mantle silicate at high temperature and pressure (Righter and Drake, 1996). 

Liu, L.-G. Bassett, W. A. (1986) Chemical and mineral composition of the Earth s interior. In Elements, Oxides, and Silicates. (Oxford Univ. Press), pp. 234—44. Sherman, D. M. (1988) High-spin to low-spin transition of iron(II) oxides at high pressures possible effects on the physics and chemistry of the Lower Mantle. In Structural and Magnetic Phase Transitions in Minerals. (S. Ghose, J. M. D. 

In contrast to the small number of differentiated parent bodies represented by evolved achondritic meteorites, the number of parent bodies inferred from the chemical compositions of iron meteorites may be as large as 50 (Wasson, 1990). Of the 13 major iron meteorite groups, 10 appear to be from cores of differentiated meteorites. Many additional cores are inferred from the ungrouped irons, which make up —15% of iron meteorites. It is a puzzle why we appear to sample many more cores than mantles of these asteroids (see Chapter 1.12 for further discussion). 

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