High-pressure behavior of the Fe-S system and composition of the Earth's inner core

TL;DR

This study uses crystal structure prediction to identify stable Fe-S compounds at core pressures, suggesting sulfur, silicon, or oxygen could explain the Earth's inner core density and composition.

Contribution

It identifies stable Fe-S compounds at core pressures and evaluates their potential to explain the Earth's inner core density and composition.

Findings

Fe2S and FeS are stable at 330-364 GPa.

Sulfur, silicon, or oxygen can account for inner core density.

Inner core atomic mass range is 52.6-53.3, higher than Birch's law estimate.

Abstract

Using evolutionary crystal structure prediction algorithm USPEX, we identify the compositions and crystal structures of stable compounds in the Fe-S system at pressures in the range 100-400 GPa. We find that at pressures of the Earth's solid inner core (330-364 GPa) two compounds are stable - Fe2S and FeS. In equilibrium with iron, only Fe2S can exist in the inner core. Using the equation of state of Fe2S, we find that in order to reproduce the density of the inner core by adding sulfur alone, 10.6-13.7 mol.% (6.4-8.4 wt.%) sulfur is needed. Analogous calculation for silicon (where the only stable compound at inner core pressures is FeSi) reproduces the density of the inner core with 9.0-11.8 mol.% (4.8-6.3 wt.%) silicon. In both cases, a virtually identical mean atomic mass M in the range 52.6-53.3 results for in the inner core, which is much higher than M = 49.3 determined for the inner core from Birch's law. For oxygen (where the relevant stable oxide at conditions of the inner core is Fe2O) we find the matching concentration in the range 13.2-17.2 mol.% (4.2-5.6 wt.%), which corresponds to M in the range 49.0-50.6. Combining our results and previous works, we find that inner core density and M can be explained by only four models (in atomic %): (a) 86%(Fe+Ni) + 14%C, (b) 84%(Fe+Ni) + 16%O, (c) 84%(Fe+Ni) + 7%S + 9%H, (d) 85%(Fe+Ni) + 6%Si + 9%H, and some of their linear combinations (primarly, models (c) and (d)).