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Science 1 June 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5829, pp. 1323 - 1325
DOI: 10.1126/science.1140549

Reports

Mars: A New Core-Crystallization Regime

Andrew J. Stewart,1 Max W. Schmidt,1* Wim van Westrenen,2 Christian Liebske1

The evolution of the martian core is widely assumed to mirror the characteristics observed for Earth's core. Data from experiments performed on iron-sulfur and iron-nickel-sulfur systems at pressures corresponding to the center of Mars indicate that its core is presently completely liquid and that it will not form an outwardly crystallizing iron-rich inner core, as does Earth. Instead, planetary cooling will lead to core crystallization following either a "snowing-core" model, whereby iron-rich solids nucleate in the outer portions of the core and sink toward the center, or a "sulfide inner-core" model, where an iron-sulfide phase crystallizes to form a solid inner core.

1 Institute for Mineralogy and Petrology, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich, CH 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
2 Faculty of Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV Amsterdam, Netherlands.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: max.schmidt{at}erdw.ethz.ch

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)