Effect of mantle oxidation state and escape upon the evolution of Earth’s magma ocean atmosphere

¹ Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Berlin Institute of Technology, Hardenbergstr. 36, 10623 Berlin, Germany
e-mail: n.katyal@tu-berlin.de
² Institute of Planetary Research, German Aerospace Center, Rutherfordstr. 2, 12489 Berlin, Germany
³ Department of Earth Sciences, Free University of Berlin, Malteserstr. 74-100, 12249 Berlin, Germany
⁴ Remote Sensing Technology Institute, German Aerospace Center, 82234 Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
⁵ Department of Planetary Sciences and Remote Sensing, Free University of Berlin, Malteserstr. 74-100, 12249 Berlin, Germany

Received: 29 June 2020
Accepted: 29 September 2020

Abstract

Context. The magma ocean period was a critical phase determining how Earth’s atmosphere developed into habitability. However, there are major uncertainties in the role of key processes such as outgassing from the planetary interior and escape of species to space that play a major role in determining the atmosphere of early Earth.

Aims. We investigate the effect of outgassing of various species and escape of H₂ for different mantle redox states upon the composition and evolution of the atmosphere for the magma ocean period.

Methods. We included an important new atmosphere-interior coupling mechanism: the redox evolution of the mantle, which strongly affects the outgassing of species. We simulated the volatile outgassing and chemical speciation at the surface for various redox states of the mantle by employing a C-H-O based chemical speciation model combined with an interior outgassing model. We then applied a line-by-line radiative transfer model to study the remote appearance of the planet in terms of the infrared emission and transmission. Finally, we used a parameterized diffusion-limited and XUV energy-driven atmospheric escape model to calculate the loss of H₂ to space.

Results. We have simulated the thermal emission and transmission spectra for reduced and oxidized atmospheres present during the magma ocean period of Earth. Reduced/thin atmospheres consisting of H₂ in abundance emit more radiation to space and have a larger effective height than oxidized/thick atmospheres, which are abundant in H₂O and CO₂. We obtain that the outgassing rates of H₂ from the mantle into the atmosphere are a factor of ten times higher than the rates of diffusion-limited escape to space. We estimate the timescale of total mass loss of outgassed H₂ via escape to be few tens of million years, which is comparable to other studies.

Conclusions. Our work presents useful insight into the development of the terrestrial atmosphere during the magma ocean period and provides input to guide future studies that discuss exoplanetary interior compositions and their possible links with atmospheric compositions that might be estimated from observed infrared spectra by future missions.