Water solubility in silicate melts: The effects of melt composition under reducing conditions and implications for nebular ingassing on rocky planets

Rocky planet atmospheres form and evolve through interactions between the planet’s surface and interior. If a growing rocky planet acquires enough mass prior to the dissipation of the nebular gas disk, it can gravitationally capture a ‘primary’ atmosphere dominated by H 2 . At the same time, these young, rocky bodies are likely to have partial or global magma oceans as a result of the heat from accretion, core formation and radioactive decay of short-lived major element isotopes. During this magma ocean stage, the dissolution of volatile, life-essential elements, such as hydrogen in the form of water or H 2 , into the magma is critical in determining the extent to which a rocky planet can maintain these elements over time. However, our ability to quantify the amount of hydrogen dissolved in the magma oceans of rocky planets is limited by the lack of experimental constraints on H-bearing species’ solubilities at relevant pressure and temperature conditions, including those expected for the early Earth. Here we experimentally determine the solubility of water in silicate melts of various compositions in the Ca Mg Al Si Fe O system at a total pressure of 1 bar and temperatures from 1673–1823 K, synthesized in a H 2 CO 2 gas-mixing furnace. We explored a range of H 2 and H 2 O fugacities, with f (H 2 ) ranging from 0.68 to 0.98 bar and f (H 2 O) from 0.02 to 0.16 bar. The amounts of dissolved water were quantified by transmission Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, using the intensity of the 3550 cm −1 absorption feature corresponding to the OH stretching band. We detect water dissolution as OH − and find that the amount of dissolved OH − increases with f (H 2 O) 0 . 5 . We use Bayesian parameter estimation to derive a robust water solubility law that includes the effects of melt composition and temperature. Using this solubility law, we estimate that ∼ 100 ppm of hydrogen can dissolve into a 1 M Earth planet with a surface pressure of ∼ 300 bars set by accretion of solar-like nebular gas, matching current estimates of the hydrogen content of the bulk silicate Earth. However, multiple lines of evidence, including Earth’s core formation age post-dating dissipation of the solar nebula, indicate that nebular ingassing did not contribute significantly to Earth’s present-day hydrogen budget. Nevertheless, for rocky planets in general, ingassing of a primary atmosphere may be an important source and initial storage mechanism for hydrogen-bearing species in a planet’s interior, provided it grew to a sufficient mass within the lifetime of the solar nebula. • Measurement of water solubility in silicate melts at 1 bar and 1673–1823 K. • Water dissolution is measured as OH − at 1-bar, and solubility increases with f (H 2 O). • New water solubility law that includes effects of melt composition and temperature. • Nebular ingassing may be a source of hydrogen for rocky planet interiors.