Researchers report that at high temperatures and pressures consistent with those under which Earth's core formed, the element niobium dissolves readily in iron, suggesting that the low niobium-to-tantalum ratio in the Earth's crust and mantle is due to niobium being sequestered in the core; core formation models incorporating this effect suggest that the core did not form under either highly reducing or highly oxidizing conditions, according to the authors.
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Article #20-07982: "The niobium and tantalum concentration in the mantle constrains the composition of Earth's primordial magma ocean," by Dongyang Huang, James Badro, and Julien Siebert.
MEDIA CONTACT: Dongyang Huang, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, FRANCE; e-mail: huang@ipgp.fr
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences