Abstract
In the earliest stage of planetary-body formation, a proto-planet presumably consists of loosely-accumulated solid grains, or clusters of grains, with ice mantles and water-ice grains. Physical and chemical reactions, similar to diagenesis1 in the terrestrial permafrost2, may occur and may be enhanced by an interfacial water layer between solid grains and water-ice at temperatures below the melting point of water-ice. The thickness of the inter-facial water layer increases with rising temperature and/or pressure in the proto-planetary body. The model I propose here eases the thermal constraints imposed by earlier models3,4 of low-temperature aqueous alteration in primitive extraterrestrial materials in which formation of an aqueous medium promoting these alterations required complete melting of the water-ice. In the proto-planetary body, low-temperature alterations, for example, the formation of hydrated silicates, will take place because of the presence of an interfacial water layer.
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Rietmeijer, F. A model for diagenesis in proto-planetary bodies. Nature 313, 293–294 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/313293a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/313293a0
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