Mantlestripped

Mantlestripped is a neologism used in speculative geoscience and related speculative writing to describe a hypothetical process in which the silicate mantle of a planetary body is removed or stripped away, leaving a core-dominated remnant. The term combines mantle with stripped and is not widely standardized in formal literature. When it appears, mantlestripped is typically employed to discuss extreme evolutionary paths for planets or planetary embryos rather than as a routinely observed phenomenon.

Etymology and usage

Mantlestripped is not an established technical term. It tends to appear in thought experiments, numerical models, and some science-fiction contexts as a shorthand for substantial mantle loss. In professional discourse, researchers more often describe related concepts such as mantle stripping, delamination, or giant-impactor–driven mantle removal, but mantlestripped serves to emphasize a scenario in which mantle removal is a dominant, defining feature.

Mechanisms

The proposed pathways for mantlestripped scenarios are theoretical and vary by context. They can include extreme tidal stripping during close planetary encounters, catastrophic giant impacts that eject mantle material preferentially due to density contrasts, or delayed delamination processes that peel away mantle portions under particular thermal and rheological conditions. In exoplanet studies, mantlestripped-like outcomes might be invoked to explain unusually high densities relative to mass.

Implications and evidence

If mantlestripped occurred, remnants would likely display higher mean densities, altered moment of inertia factors, and surface or interior compositions enriched in core-like materials. To date, no confirmed observational evidence guarantees mantlestripped bodies, and the concept remains speculative, serving mainly as a framework for exploring planetary differentiation and extreme evolution.

See also: mantle-core differentiation, delamination, giant-impact hypothesis, planetary differentiation.