Direct Viscosity Measurement of Peridotite Melt to Lower‐Mantle Conditions: A Further Support for a Fractional Magma‐Ocean Solidification at the Top of the Lower Mantle
Longjian Xie, Akira Yoneda, Tomoo Katsura, D. Andrault, Yoshinori Tange, Yuji Higo
Abstract
Abstract As evidenced by isotope geochemistry, the persistence of primitive reservoirs indicates that the earth's lower mantle is likely to be heterogeneous. Such heterogeneity could be a legacy from magma‐ocean (MO) solidification. The viscosity of MO is a key parameter to constrain the solidification type of MO. Here we directly measure the viscosity of peridotite (an analog of MO composition) melt at the pressure‐temperature conditions of the deep mantle, using the in situ falling sphere method. The viscosity of peridotite melt along liquidus is in the range of 38–17 mPa s at pressures from 7 to 25 GPa, which is 0.9–0.4 times of the estimation based on the viscosity of endmember compositions. Low viscosity favors fractional solidification and chemically layering of the early mantle at least to the top lower mantle, which could be a source of heterogeneity for the present mantle.