Possibility of a thermal catastrophe in the earliest period of the Earth as revealed by the volatile content of igneous crustal and mantle rocks

Experimental investigations of the total volatile (water and gases) content of a number of igneous crustal and mantle rock samples demonstrate that the crust is degassed in comparison with the volatile rich mantle. A hypothesis is postulated according to which the degassing of the surface of the Earth occured by a short catasrophal external heating event which did not penetrate into the deeper mantle layers. The source of this high heat influx was assumedly the Sun, about 4-4.6x10sup(9) years ago. (author)