Early volatile depletion on planetesimals inferred from C-S systematics of iron meteorite parent bodies

TL;DR

This study investigates volatile loss in planetesimals through iron meteorite analysis, revealing early and significant silicate degassing that influences volatile inventories of terrestrial planets.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the extent and processes of volatile depletion during planetesimal differentiation, emphasizing the role of open system silicate melting.

Findings

Parent bodies show significant C and S depletion due to degassing.

Silicate melting and open system volatile loss are necessary to explain compositions.

Devolatilization during small-body differentiation impacts planetary volatile inventories.

Abstract

During the formation of terrestrial planets, volatile loss may occur through nebular processing, planetesimal differentiation, and planetary accretion. We investigate iron meteorites as an archive of volatile loss during planetesimal processing. The carbon contents of the parent bodies of magmatic iron meteorites are reconstructed by thermodynamic modelling. Calculated solid/molten alloy partitioning of C increases greatly with liquid S concentration and inferred parent body C concentrations range from 0.0004 to 0.11 wt.%. Parent bodies fall into 2 compositional clusters characterized by cores with medium, and low C/S. Both of these require significant planetesimal degassing, as metamorphic devolatilization on chondrite-like precursors is insufficient to account for their C depletions. Planetesimal core formation models, ranging from closed system extraction to degassing of a wholly molten body, show that significant open system silicate melting and volatile loss is required to match medium and low C/S parent body core compositions. Greater depletion in C relative to S is the hallmark of silicate degassing, indicating that parent body core compositions record processes that affect composite silicate/iron planetesimals. Degassing of bare cores stripped of their silicate mantles would deplete S with negligible C loss, and could not account for inferred parent body core compositions. Devolatilization during small-body differentiation is thus a key process in shaping the volatile inventory of terrestrial planets derived from planetesimals and planetary embryos.