English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Despite its importance to questions of lunar origin, the chemical compositionof the Moon is not precisely known. In recent years, however, the isotopiccomposition of lunar samples has been determined to high precision and found tobe indistinguishable from the terrestrial mantle despite widespread isotopicheterogeneity in the Solar System. In the context of the giant-impacthypothesis, this level of isotopic homogeneity can evolve if the proto-lunardisk and post-impact Earth undergo turbulent mixing into a single uniformreservoir while the system is extensively molten and partially vaporized. Inthe absence of liquid-vapor separation, such a model leads to the lunarinheritance of the chemical composition of the terrestrial magma ocean. Hence,the turbulent mixing model raises the question of how chemical differencesarose between the silicate Earth and Moon. Here we explore the consequences ofliquid-vapor separation in one of the settings relevant to the lunarcomposition: the silicate vapor atmosphere of the post-giant-impact Earth. Weuse a model atmosphere to quantify the extent to which rainout can generatechemical differences by enriching the upper atmosphere in the vapor, and showthat plausible parameters can generate the postulated enhancement in theFeO/MgO ratio of the silicate Moon relative to the Earth's mantle. Moreover, weshow that liquid-vapor separation also generates measurable mass-dependentisotopic offsets between the silicate Earth and Moon and that precise siliconisotope measurements can be used to constrain the degree of chemicalfractionation during this earliest period of lunar history. An approach of thiskind has the potential to resolve long-standing questions on the lunar chemicalcomposition.

Chemical Fractionation in the Silicate Vapor Atmosphere of the Earth