Uni Münster, Institute für Mineralogie,
Corrensstr. 24, Room 127
48149 Münster
Phone: +49 251 83-33458
In the Earth-Moon system there are scarce data, not only on the origin of atmophile and hydrophile elements, such as H, S or the halogens, but also on the processes that govern their abundance in all terrestrial and lunar reservoirs. As a result little is known about the fractionation of these elements during accretion, magma ocean crystallization or magmatic differentiation.
In order to partially address these matters we will conduct high-P high-T experiments to study the partitioning of F, Cl, Br between mantle minerals and different silicate melt compositions. We will perform some additional high-P and high-T experiments between metal and silicate melts in an attempt to determine the behavior of these elements during the time of core formation. The experimental halogen partition coefficients will be used in order to expand our knowledge on the behavior of the elements in different environments. We will use the partition coefficients to calculate halogen budgets of different mantle reservoirs. This will enable us to contrain not only the present-day halogen budget of the Earth and Moon but also improve our understanding on the evolution of halogen budgets from accretion until now.
Figure 1. High pressure experimental charge for the mineral/melt partitioning experiments. Experimental pressure was 1.4 GPa and temperature around 1200°C
Figure 2. High pressure experimental charge for the metall/silicate partitioning experiments. Experimental pressure was 10 GPa and temperature around 1900°C
Volatile-element loss during magma degassing