资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Whether Earth's core is a significant repository of noble gases is an open question because their partitioning between liquid metal and silicate melt during core formation is poorly known. Here we calculated the He and Ar partition coefficients (D) between liquid Fe and MgSiO₃ melt from 20 to 135 GPa at 5000 K using ab initio molecular dynamics combined with thermodynamic integration. Our simulations show that D_He does not change significantly with pressure, while D_Ar increases strongly with increasing pressure. Furthermore, we found that the metal/silicate partitioning behaviors of He and Ar are controlled by their atomic size and the charge density properties of the host compositions. These results indicate that Earth's core is a plausible reservoir for ³He and could possibly account for the high ³He/⁴He ratios in the OIBs that associated with deep‐rooted plumes, but the core is unlikely to be a significant source for ³⁶Ar.