Solar system planetary differentiation

The Earth and other planetary bodies have been heavily modified by planetary-scale differentiation, smaller scale melting and the resulting chemical fractionations, collisions that mix material with different histories, and other processes. Samples of these materials are thus not suitable for determining the solar system composition. More primitive objects, such as comets and chondritic meteorites, have compositions more similar to the composition of... 

Some meteorites, and all planetary samples, have undergone melting and differentiation at some stage. Hence, the compositions of differentiated materials do not resemble solar system abundances. These samples can, however, tell us about various geochemical processes within asteroids and planets. 

Planetary differentiation is a fractionation event of the first order, and it involves both chemical fractionation and physical fractionation processes. Planetary crusts are enriched in elements that occur in silicate minerals that melt at relatively low temperatures. Recall from Chapter 4 that the high solar system abundances of magnesium, silicon, and iron mean that the silicate portions of planetesimals and planets will be dominated by olivine and pyroxenes. Partial melting of sources dominated by olivine and pyroxene ( ultramafic rocks ) produces basaltic liquids that ascend buoyantly and erupt on the surface. It is thus no surprise that most crusts are made of basalts. Remelting of basaltic crust produces magmas richer in silica, eventually resulting in granites, as on the Earth. 

Cosmochemislry places important constraints on models for the origin of the solar nebula and the formation and evolution of planets. We explore nebula constraints by defining the thermal conditions under which meteorite components formed and examine the isotopic evidence for interaction of the nebula with the ISM and a nearby supernova. We consider how planetary bulk compositions are estimated and how they are used to understand the formation of the terrestrial and giant planets from nebular materials. We review the differentiation of planets, focusing especially on the Earth. We also consider how orbital and collisional evolution has redistributed materials formed in different thermal and compositional regimes within the solar system. 

Jochum K. P., Seufert H. M., Spettel B., and Palme H. (1986) The solar system abundances of Nb, Ta, and Y. and the relative abundances of refractory hthophile elements in differentiated planetary bodies. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 50, 1173-1183. 

Many meteorites have never been subjected to processes of planetary differentiation. These imdifferentiated meteorites come fix>m planetesimals that were never molten and resemble die composition of the solar nebula at the time and place of their formation. They exhibit approximately solar system composition, are called chondritic meteorites, and represent one big group of meteorites. The second group consists of the differentiated meteorites which represent pieces of partially or totally molten parent bodies. Examples of this group are meteoritic basalts (eucrites) or iron meteorites. The latter are pieces of the segregated core of the parent body. 

The decay of Hf to is well suited to date core formation in planetary objects mainly for three reasons. First, owing to the Hf half-life of 9 Myr, detectable W isotope variations can only be produced in the first -60 Myr of the solar system. This timescale is appropriate for the formation of the Earth and Moon in particular and to planetary accretion and differentiation in general. Second, both Hf and W are refractory elements such that there is only limited fractionation of Hf and W in the solar nebula or among different planetary bodies (see above). The HfrW ratio of the bulk Earth therefore can be assumed to be chondritic and hence can be measured today. Third, Hf is a lithophile and W is a siderophile element such that the chondritic HfrW ratio of the Earth is fractionated internally by core formation. If core formation took place during the effective lifetime of Hf, the metal core (HfrW-O) will develop a deficit in the abundance of whereas the silicate mantle, owing to its enhanced Hf/W, will develop an excess of (7-P). 

Small objects such as the parent bodies of differentiated meteorites underwent core formation early, in less than a few Myr after formation of the solar system. Over these timescales the decay of Al was a major heat source for differentiation. Accretion and differentiation of larger bodies such as Mars and Earth appear to have taken much longer, such that the energy required for differentiation was largely provided by collisions among planetary embryos. These Hf-W ages are consistent with numerical simulations that predict an early forma-... 

Fig. 14. Uranium is refractory like the rare earths, so that K/U ratios are an analogue for K/La ratios (fig. 11). K and U data are available for a wide variety of solar system material, since both elements are readily determined by gamma-ray spectroscopy. Both are incompatible in igneous processes and so tend to preserve their bulk planetary ratios during differentiation. This diagram illustrates that substantial volatile element depletion was widespread in the inner solar nebula, so that similar variations to K/U in volatile element/rare earth ratios are lo be expected. (From Taylor 1987a.)...

Some short-lived radionuclides were sufficiently abundant at the start of the solar system to produce variations in the abundance of their daughter isotopes in early-formed objects (Table 10.2). The half-lives of these nuclides are between about 0.1 and 100 Ma (Table 10.2). Hence, the parent isotopes are no longer present today, but they were synthesized in stars shortly before solar system formation and therefore they were present in the early solar nebula. The isotopic record of these nuclides provides information about stellar nucleosynthetic sites active shortly before the birth of the solar system and the time scales over which the early solar system formed and first differentiated. Depending on half-life and chemical affinities of parent and daughter isotopes, extinct radionuclide systems can be used to date processes as diverse as the formation of CAIs and chondrules, volatile element depletion and planetary difierentiation (e.g., core segregation and differentiation of early silicate reservoirs). In particular, they are powerful tools to study the Earth s accretion and core formation [90-92],... 

Yin, Q.Z., Jacobsen, S.B., Blichert-Toft, J., Telouk, P., and AlbarMe, F. (2001) Nb-Zr and HT-W isotope systematics applications to early solar system chronology and planetary differentiation, 32nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, 12-16 March 2001, Houston, TX, Abstract 2128. 

---