Rock-fluid interaction in the interior of ice- and gas-giant planets

Mg and Fe bearing silicates are the most abundant rock forming minerals in primitive meteorites and in the rocky fractions of comets (Rubin, 2010). Thus, they are expected to form the major fraction of rocky material in the interior of Uranus, Neptune, but also in Saturn. There are indications that rocky material reacts with the low-Z material in these planets (Militzer et al., 2019). We explore high-pressure-high temperature reactions of olivine with low-Z fluids in the range of 10s of GPa and several thousands of K by combining shock-induced deflagration and shock reverberation. Samples are examined by synchrotron micro-diffraction, by optical spectroscopy, and FE-EPMA.