RETRACTED: Redox Evolution of the Crystallizing Terrestrial Magma Ocean and Its Influence on the Outgassed Atmosphere

Abstract

Magma oceans (MOs) are episodes of large-scale melting of the mantle of terrestrial planets. The energy delivered by the Moon-forming impact induced a deep MO on the young Earth, corresponding to the last episode of core-mantle equilibration. The crystallization of this MO led to the outgassing of volatiles initially present in the Earth’s mantle, resulting in the formation of a secondary atmosphere. During outgassing, the MO acts as a chemical buffer for the atmosphere via the oxygen fugacity, set by the equilibrium between ferrous- and ferric-iron oxides in the silicate melts. By tracking the evolution of the oxygen fugacity during MO solidification, we model the evolving composition of a C-O-H atmosphere. We use the atmospheric composition to calculate its thermal structure and radiative flux. This allows us to calculate the lifetime of the terrestrial MO. We find that, upon crystallizing, the MO evolves from a mildly reducing to a highly oxidized redox state, thereby transiting from a CO- and H2-dominated atmosphere to a CO2- and H2O-dominated one. We find the overall duration of the MO crystallization to depend mostly on the bulk H content of the mantle, and to remain below 1.5 millions yr for up to nine Earth’s water oceans’ worth of H. Our model also suggests that reduced atmospheres emit lower infrared radiation than oxidized ones, despite of the lower greenhouse effect of reduced species, resulting in a longer MO lifetime in the former case. Although developed for a deep MO on Earth, the framework applies to all terrestrial planet and exoplanet MOs, depending on their volatile budgets.