Magnesium oceanic mantle

The controls on carbon dioxide would have been somewhat different. Today, carbon dioxide is stored in carbonate minerals in the ocean floor and on the continental shelf. Subduction, followed by volcanism, cycles the carbon dioxide to the mantle and then restores the CO2 to the air. Metamorphic decarbonation of the lower crust also returns carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is then cycled back to the water, some via rain, some dissolved via wave bubbles. Erosion provides calcium and magnesium, eventually to precipitate the carbonate. In the earliest Archean, parts of this cycle may have been inefficient. The continental supply of calcium may have been limited however, subseafloor hydrothermal systems would have been vigorous and abundant, exchanging sodium for calcium in spilitization reactions, and hence providing calcium for in situ precipitation in oceanic crust. 

Murakami et al. (2002) studied a natural peridotite composition (with 7.5-13.5 wt.% H2O) at 25.5 GPa and 1,600-1,650 °C. They measured water contents in their run products by SIMS. They found magnesium-rich perovskite and ferropericlase to have —2,000 ppm H2O and calcium-rich perovskite to have —4,000 ppm H2O. A lower mantle consisting of 79 wt.% Mg-perovskite, 16 wt.% ferropericlase, and 5 wt.% Ca-perovskite could contain 2,100 ppm H2O, which when integrated over the mass of the lower mantle yields a reservoir —5 times greater than the oceans. They compare this to the transition zone, which can store nearly six oceans worth of water, despite its smaller volume, because of the greater solubility of water in wadsleyite and ringwoodite (—3.3 X 10" ppm and... 

Figure 3 The distribution of neon isotopes in mantle-derived rocks, indicating the presence of an atmospheric component, a radiogenic component adding Ne (produced by neutrons from uranium fission acting on oxygen and magnesium), and a solar component. It is this latter that indicates that gases in the mantle were derived from the capture of solar material in the early history of the Earth. M = MORB (midocean ridge basalts) P = plume or ocean island basalts (OIB) A = atmosphere. Solar neon is represented by the horizontal line at Ne/ Ne = 12.5 MFL is the mass fractionation line. The presence of solar neon in ocean basalts was first identified by Craig and Lupton (Craig H and Lupton JE (1976) Earth and Planetary Science Letters 31 369-385). (Reprinted with permission from Farley and Poreda (1993).

The planet Earth was thus formed. Heat was created as the coalescence (of planetesimals) proceeded due to gravity, and heat also came from radioactivity of several radioactive elements such as aluminum-26. So the newly formed body was heated and the core was melted. As the material becomes liquid (as a result of melting), the materials contained in the liquid separate out according to their densities. The more dense material would sink closer to the bottom (core). Thus, the present layer structure of the Earth formed. The innermost core is a dense solid of about 1,200 km radius, whose density is about 12.6 g per cubic centimeter (12.6 x 10 kg/m ). It is made of mostly iron metal and a small amount of nickel. By the way, the density of iron metal is only 7.8 x 10 kg/m under the ordinary pressure. The next layer is the outer core (up to 3,500 km from the center of the Earth), which is liquid and has a density of 9.5-12x10 kg/m. The chemical composition seems to be about the same as that of the inner core. There is an abrupt change in density in the next layer, mantle. The width of mantle is about 2,900 km (3,500-6,380 km from the center). Its density ranges from 4 to 5.5 x 10 kg/m. The mantle is made of mostly magnesium-iron silicates (silicon oxides). The outermost layer is the thin crust of about 35 5 km on the land portion, and about 6 km under the ocean portion. 

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