DEWPython: A Python Implementation of the Deep Earth Water Model and Application to Ocean Worlds

Abstract

There are two main methods of calculating the thermodynamic properties of water and solutes: mass action (including the Helgeson-Kirkham-Flowers (HKF) equations of state and model) and Gibbs free energy minimization (e.g. Leal et al., 2016). However, in certain regions of pressure and temperature the HKF model inaccurately predicts the speciation and concentration of solutes (e.g. Miron et al., 2019). The Deep Earth Water (DEW) model uses a series of HKF-type equations to calculate the properties of water and solute concentrations at high temperatures (373 - 1473 K) and pressures (0.1 - 6 GPa) (e.g. Huang and Sverjensky, 2019; Pan et al., 2013; Sverjensky et al., 2014). The DEW model is synthesized in an Excel spreadsheet and calculates Gibbs energies of formation, equilibrium constants, and standard volume changes for reactions. Here we present an object-oriented Python implementation of the DEW model, called DEWPython. Our model expands on DEW by increasing model efficiency, streamlining the input process, and incorporating SUPCRT in-line. Additionally, our model builds in minerals and aqueous species from the thermodynamic database slop16.dat (Boyer, 2019) which would normally be calculated separately. We also present a set of reactions relevant to icy ocean world interiors calculated with the DEWPython. The favorability of these reactions indicates likely formation of certain organic species under extreme pressures relevant to ocean worlds.

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