Permeable flow of liquid Fe alloy through silicate grain boundary

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23340129
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Solid earth and planetary physics
• Research Institution: Okayama University
• Principal Investigator: URAKAWA Satoru 岡山大学, 自然科学研究科, 教授 (30201958)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TERASAKI Hidenori 大阪大学, 大学院理学研究科, 准教授 (50374898)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): FUNAKOSHI Ken-ichi 総合科学研究機構, 東海事業センター・利用推進部, 次長 (30344394) ; UESUGI Kentaro 高輝度光科学研究センター, 研究員 (80344399) ; HASHIMOTO George 岡山大学, 大学院自然科学研究科, 准教授 (10372658)
• Project Period (FY): 2011-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 惑星形成・進化 / 核形成過程

Outline of Final Research Achievements

At the early history of the solar system, molten iron alloy is separated from silicate mantle to form an iron core at the center of the protoplanets. We investigated this process by using high-pressure and high-temperature experiments combined with synchrotron X-ray micro computed tomography. We found that a permeable flow of liquid iron alloy through the crystalline silicate grain boundary is a dominant core-mantle separation process in the protpplanets with which the radius is smaller than several hundred km.

Free Research Field

数物系科学・地球惑星科学・固体地球物理学