High-Pressure Melting Experiments of Fe3C and a Thermodynamic Model of Fe-C Liquids for the Earth's Core

Abstract

Melting experiments of Fe₃C were conducted to 85 GPa in laser-heated diamond anvil cells with in situ X-ray diffraction and post-experiment textural observation. From the determined pressure-temperature conditions of the melting curve for Fe₃C, together with literature data on the melting point of diamond and eutectic point of the system Fe-Fe₃C/Fe₇C₃ under high pressures, we established a self-consistent thermodynamic model for high-pressure melting of the system Fe-C including the mixing parameters for liquids. The results show that mixing of Fe and C liquids is negatively nonideal from 1 bar to the pressure at the center of the Earth. The departure from ideal mixing becomes progressively larger with increasing pressure, which leads to greatly stabilized liquids under core pressures. The modeled carbon content in eutectic melts under core pressures is 3.3–4.4 wt%. From the Gibbs free energy, we derived an internally consistent parameters for Fe-C outer cores which included the crystallizing points at their bottoms, isentropic thermal profiles, and densities and longitudinal seismic wave speeds (Vp). While the addition of carbon in excess of the eutectic melt composition effectively reduces the density of iron liquid, the Vp of iron liquid is not greatly changed. Therefore, the low density and high Vp of PREM relative to pure iron cannot be reconciled by an Fe-C liquid. Therefore, the Earth's core cannot be approximated by the system Fe-C and should include another light element.