Core formation by giant impacts: Conditions for intact melt region formation

Among the many effects of high-speed, giant impacts is widescale melting that can potentially trigger catastrophic core formation. If the projectile is sufficiently large, the melt pools to form an intact melt region. The dense phase then segregates from the melt, forming a density anomoly at the melt region's base. If the anomoly produces a differential stress larger than a certain minimum, it overcomes the mantle's long-term elastic strength and rapidly forms a core. It was previously shown that giant impacts effectively trigger core formation in silicate bodies by the time they grow to the mass of Mercury and in icy bodies by the time they grow larger than Triton. In order for this process to be viable, an intact melt region must be formed. Conditions under which this occurs is examined in more detail than previously published.