A first-principles characterization of water adsorption on forsterite grains.

Some – Perhaps Most - Water in the Earth must result from Adsorption on to Grains in the Accretion Disk

Muralidharan et al. [1] have shown that up to 8 Earth oceans of water could be associatively adsorbed on to grains in the accretion disk at 1 AU. Here we expand on that work using atomistic and electronic-level calculations to investigate dissociative adsorption, and use density functional theory to investigate the difference in D/H ratios between water on Earth and in the accretion disk. We fi...

The interaction of hydrogen with the {010} surfaces of Mg and Fe olivine as models for interstellar dust grains: a density functional theory study

There is no consensus as yet to account for the significant presence of water on the terrestrial planets, but suggested sources include direct hydrogen adsorption from the parent molecular cloud after the planets' formation, and delivery of hydrous material via comets or asteroids external to the zone of the terrestrial planets. Alternatively, a more recent idea is that water may have directly ...

Origin of water in the inner Solar System: A kinetic Monte Carlo study of water adsorption on forsterite

An ångström-sized window on the origin of water in the inner solar system: Atomistic simulation of adsorption of water on olivine

The origin of water in the inner solar system is not yet well understood. Because of the coexistence of water and small solid particulates in the accretion disk from which our planetary system formed, we propose that adsorption of water onto the surfaces/pores of forsterite could play and important role in the delivery of water to the rocky planets. In this work we employ energy minimization te...

Aqueous alteration of chondrules from the Murchison CM carbonaceous chondrite: Replacement, pore filling, and the genesis of polyhedral serpentine

Forsterite and clinoenstatite in type IAB chondrules from the Murchison CM carbonaceous chondrite have been partially serpentinized, and the mechanisms of their alteration reveal crystallographic and microstructural controls on the reaction of silicate minerals with parent body aqueous solutions. Grains of forsterite were altered in two stages. Narrow veinlets of Fe-rich serpentine formed first...