Liquidus Phase Relations and Solid-Liquid Partitioning in the Fe-Si-C
System Under Core Pressures
Abstract
Both silicon and carbon have been proposed to be important light
elements in the Earth’s core, in particular in the inner core. Here we
performed melting experiments on the Fe-Si-C ternary system at
~50, ~136, and ~200 GPa
and determined the liquidus phase relations and the solid/liquid
partition coefficients (D) of C and Si. The liquidus field of Fe shrinks
at higher pressures, which narrows down the possible outer core liquid
composition. Our data also demonstrate that the Fe-Si binary eutectic
liquid reduces its Si concentration to ~8 wt% with
increasing pressure to 330 GPa. We found that the inner core is not
Fe-Si-C-S alloy but likely includes hydrogen when considering the low DC
and the strong enhancement of DSi with increasing liquid C abundance.
The present-day core does not include as much as ~6 wt%
Si, suggesting that at least a part of “missing” Si could be
sequestrated elsewhere.