Waterworlds Probably Do Not Experience Magmatic Outgassing

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that high volatile solubility in high-pressure melts likely prevents magmatic outgassing on waterworlds, significantly impacting their atmospheric development and potential biosignature detection.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that volatile solubility limits in melts strongly inhibit outgassing on waterworlds, a factor previously underappreciated in planetary evolution models.

Findings

Volatile solubility in melts prevents outgassing at ocean depths over 10-100 km.

Large surface oceans suppress melt production and degassing.

Trappist-1f and -1g are unlikely to experience volcanic degassing.

Abstract

Terrestrial planets with large water inventories are likely ubiquitous and will be among the first Earth-sized planets to be characterized with upcoming telescopes. It has previously been argued that waterworlds-particularly those possessing more than 1% H$_2$O-experience limited melt production and outgassing due to the immense pressure overburden of their overlying oceans, unless subject to high internal heating. But an additional, underappreciated obstacle to outgassing on waterworlds is the high solubility of volatiles in high-pressure melts. Here, we investigate this phenomenon and show that volatile solubilities in melts probably prevent almost all magmatic outgassing from waterworlds. Specifically, for Earth-like gravity and oceanic crust composition, oceans or water ice exceeding 10-100 km in depth (0.1-1 GPa) preclude the exsolution of volatiles from partial melt of silicates. This solubility limit compounds the pressure overburden effect as large surface oceans limit both melt production and degassing from any partial melt that is produced. We apply these calculations to Trappist-1 planets to show that, given current mass and radius constraints and implied surface water inventories, Trappist-1f and -1g are unlikely to experience volcanic degassing. While other mechanisms for interior-surface volatile exchange are not completely excluded, the suppression of magmatic outgassing simplifies the range of possible atmospheric evolution trajectories and has implications for interpretation of ostensible biosignature gases, which we illustrate with a coupled model of planetary interior-climate-atmosphere evolution.