Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 20, 2026

Simulation of the Planetary Interior Differentiation Processes in the Laboratory
Published on: November 15, 2013
A plagioclase-rich protocrust on Mars formed by magma ocean crystallization
Xue Wang1,2, Yanhao Lin1, Wim van Westrenen1,3
1Lin Earth and Planetary Laboratory, Center for High Pressure Science and Technology Advanced Research, Beijing 100193, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Accretion and early evolution of rocky planets involved high temperatures that produced global magma oceans. Their cooling, outgassing, and crystallization controlled primary crust formation, atmospheric composition, and mantle dynamics. Using new estimates of martian mantle composition and depth, we experimentally simulated the solidification of the entire magma ocean. Under the relatively oxidizing conditions of Mars, crystallization produced a mantle assemblage of olivine/wadsleyite, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, garnet, and spinel and generated in the final stages a >30-kilometer-thick, buoyant protocrust dominated by plagioclase and quartz. These results differ notably from previous models and are consistent with remote sensing evidence for ancient plagioclase-rich, low-density crustal rocks. Our results redefine the density structure and potential overturn dynamics of the early martian mantle, establishing a new framework for interpreting geochemical signatures in martian meteorites and for guiding analyses of igneous rocks from future Mars Sample Return missions.
Related Concept Videos
Diversity of Protists III
Minerals
Conditions on Early Earth
Conditions on Early Earth
Sulfur Assimilation
Crystal Growth: Principles of Crystallization
Initiating crystallization involves manipulating the concentration of the solute and the temperature of the solution. Since crystal growth occurs when the ratio of concentration and solubility of the solute in the solvent – the...
