Bridgmanite’s ferric iron content determined Earth’s oxidation state

Abstract

Bridgmanite, a magnesium-rich silicate perovskite, is the most prevalent mineral in Earth’s lower mantle and contains substantial quantities of ferric (oxidized) iron, even in equilibrium with iron metal. Mixing of oxygen-rich material from the lower mantle could have raised the oxidation state of the upper mantle to its present level after the more reducing conditions during core formation. However, it remains unclear how the lower-mantle oxygen content was established to achieve this level. Here we use high-pressure and temperature multi-anvil experiments at known oxygen fugacities to show that the bridgmanite ferric iron content is independent of pressure but decreases with temperature. Using these data, we build a thermodynamic model to calculate the ferric iron content of the lower mantle as bridgmanite crystallized from a reduced magma ocean in the early Earth. We determine that this ferric iron content would have been sufficient to explain the current upper mantle’s ferric iron content after whole mantle mixing.