Solar nebula condensation

Boynton W. V. (1975) Fractionation in the solar nebula condensation of yttrium and the rare earth elements. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 39, 569-584. 

The solar system accreted from a dust cloud, formed after a supernova explosion. From this primitive solar nebula condensed the Sun and the planets. Some of the oldest objects in the solar system yet found are Ca-Al-rich inclusions in meteorites, —4.566 Ga old (Allegre et al, 1995). It is possible that these grains predate the solar nebula and may have been formed in the expanding envelope of the supernova explosion (Cameron, 2002). 

The fractionation of these refractory elements is beheved to be the result of relative efficiencies of incorporation of condensed sohds rich in early high temperature phases into the meteorite parent bodies at different times and locations in the solar nebula. The data are taken from Reference 3. 

Water and carbon play critical roles in many of the Earth s chemical and physical cycles and yet their origin on the Earth is somewhat mysterious. Carbon and water could easily form solid compounds in the outer regions of the solar nebula, and accordingly the outer planets and many of their satellites contain abundant water and carbon. The type I carbonaceous chondrites, meteorites that presumably formed in the asteroid belt between the terrestrial and outer planets, contain up to 5% (m/m) carbon and up to 20% (m/m) water of hydration. Comets may contain up to 50% water ice and 25% carbon. The terrestrial planets are comparatively depleted in carbon and water by orders of magnitude. The concentration of water for the whole Earth is less that 0.1 wt% and carbon is less than 500 ppm. Actually, it is remarkable that the Earth contains any of these compounds at all. As an example of how depleted in carbon and water the Earth could have been, consider the moon, where indigenous carbon and water are undetectable. Looking at Fig. 2-4 it can be seen that no water- or carbon-bearing solids should have condensed by equilibrium processes at the temperatures and pressures that probably were typical in the zone of fhe solar... 

Carbonaceous solids also reach Earth in the form of organic and icy materials that condensed in the cold outer regions of the solar nebula and also as organic materials preserved in interstellar grains. 

Fig. 2.3 According to the homogeneous accretion model (a), iron-containing material (black) and silicate-containing material (colorless) condensed out at the same time, i.e., the proto-Earth consisted of a mixture of the two. The concentration of iron in the Earth s core took place later. According to the heterogeneous model (b), the iron condensed out of the primeval solar nebula first, while the silicates later formed a crust around the heavy core. From Jeanloz (1983)...

The volatile materials would have vaporised from the surface of the planetesimals once the temperature reached 160 K below this temperature water sticks to silicate surfaces and condenses, ultimately freezing into ice. The new gaseous material is swept away from the planetesimals by the solar wind of particles, leaving bare planetesimals too small to acquire and maintain an atmosphere. The temperature gradient and location within the solar nebula are then important to the ultimate nature and composition of the planets themselves and interplanetary debris. 

The Earth s crust, mantle and core are strongly influenced by differentiation processes which could have resulted from gravitational separation ( smelting ) in an early molten phase of the planet, or from the sequence in which different chemical species condensed from the primitive solar nebula and were subsequently accreted. Seismology indicates that there is a liquid core (with a solid inner core) with radius 3500 km consisting mainly of iron (with some Ni and FeS) surrounded by a plastic (Fe, Mg silicate) mantle of thickness 2900 km. 

Grossman, L. (1972). Condensation in the primitive solar nebula. Geochim. Cosmochim. 

Wark DA (1986) Evidence for successive episodes of condensation at high temperature in a part of the solar nebula. Earth Planet Sci Lett 77 129-148... 

The temperature of 50% condensation of a given element in the Solar Nebula defined by Wasson (1985) is 1037 K for Cu and 660 K for Zn. The much more volatile character of Zn with respect to Cu conditions the relative abundances of the two elements among the dififerent classes of chondrites. Copper concentrations vary from 80 to 120 ppm in carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites (Newsom 1995). In contrast, Zn concentrations decrease from 310 ppm in the volatile-rich Cl to 100 ppm in CO and CV, and to 50 ppm in ordinary chondrites. McDonough and Sun (1995) estimate the Cu and Zn content of the Bulk Silicate Earth to be 30 and 55 ppm, respectively. 

In cosmochemistry, we use stable-isotope fractionations to study evaporation and condensation in the solar nebula, aqueous processes on asteroids, and even ion-molecule reactions to form organic molecules in interstellar clouds. The oxygen isotopes also show large mass-independent shifts that may be related either to chemical or physical processes or to incomplete mixing of the products of nucleosynthesis. These topics will be covered in detail in later chapters. 

Because of the isotopic variability and the high cosmic abundance of oxygen, oxygen isotopes are very useful for meteorite classification. Below the condensation temperature of silicates and above the condensation temperature of ices, approximately 25% of the oxygen in the solar nebula is predicted to have occurred in condensed solids, with the remainder in gaseous molecules. Chondrites provide samples of the condensed oxygen in the early solar system. 

Condensation under the conditions obtained in the solar nebula is not really amenable to direct experiment. However, experiments have provided thermodynamic data with which the condensation process can be modeled theoretically. 

The temperatures of appearance of various solid phases as a cooling solar gas condenses are illustrated in Figure 7.1. This particular condensation calculation was performed at a pressure of 10 4 atm (thought to be appropriate for parts of the nebula). It is important to note that not every mineral in the sequence actually condenses directly from the vapor. Instead, some minerals form by reaction of previously condensed solids with the vapor. For example, FeS forms by reaction of already condensed Fe metal with sulfur in the gas phase, and olivine first condenses as the magnesium end member forsterite and then becomes progressively more iron-rich by reaction with vapor as temperature decreases. 

We should also address the question of whether Cl chondrites represent the complete, low-temperature condensate from the solar nebula. Their bulk composition is consistent with such a model. However, Cl chondrites contain among the highest abundances of presolar grains that are not destroyed by aqueous alteration (the mineralogy of Cl chondrites is almost entirely due to such alteration). This suggests that it is more likely that Cl chondrites formed from representative samples of the dust inherited from the Sun s parent... 

Two types of models have been proposed that use this general picture as the basis for understanding volatile depletions in chondrites. Yin (2005) proposed that the volatile element depletions in the chondrites reflect the extent to which these elements were sited in refractory dust in the interstellar medium. Observations show that in the warm interstellar medium, the most refractory elements are almost entirely in the dust, while volatile elements are almost entirely in the gas phase. Moderately volatile elements are partitioned between the two phases. The pattern for the dust is similar to that observed in bulk chondrites. In the Sun s parent molecular cloud, the volatile and moderately volatile elements condensed onto the dust grains in ices. Within the solar system, the ices evaporated putting the volatile elements back into the gas phase, which was separated from the dust. Thus, in Yin s model, the chondrites inherited their compositions from the interstellar medium. A slightly different model proposes that the fractionated compositions were produced in the solar nebula by... 

Grossman, L. (1972) Condensation in the primitive solar nebula. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 36, 597-619. This paper describes the first comprehensive calculations of equilibrium condensation under nebula conditions. 

Petaev, M. I. and Wood, J. A. (1998) The condensation with partial isolation (CWPI) model of condensation in the solar nebula. Meteoritics and Planetary Science, 33, 1123-1137. 

Interstellar grains with ice mantles probably comprised a significant amount of the material that collapsed to form the solar nebula. Heating of this material caused the icy mantles to sublimate, producing a vapor that subsequently condensed as crystalline ices as the nebula cooled. By mass, H20 ice rivals rock in terms of potentially condensable matter from a gas of cosmic composition. The amount of water ice depends, of course, on the extent to which oxygen is otherwise tied up with carbon as CO and/or C02 (Prinn,... 

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