Their model seems to be that the elements mix like in a blender. It isn’t clear to me if that’s wrong or not. In particular, two seemingly reasonable processes could the that the elements mix, and then have some additional process to separate, or that they simply don’t mix in the first place. In the former case, their model isn’t wrong, it is just missing an understanding of that last process.
In general I think it is good to investigate both options: maybe I’m just wrong, or maybe I’m mostly right but am just missing a couple steps.
We’ve got lots of people commenting with processes that will sort the elements back out, so I think op was mostly right, just missing a lot of little processes.
Comments
Clearly the metals and their oxides phase segregate, so the question is: "Why do you assume that molten rocks mix?"
What mental model do you have that leads you to the wrong answer?
Their model seems to be that the elements mix like in a blender. It isn’t clear to me if that’s wrong or not. In particular, two seemingly reasonable processes could the that the elements mix, and then have some additional process to separate, or that they simply don’t mix in the first place. In the former case, their model isn’t wrong, it is just missing an understanding of that last process.
In general I think it is good to investigate both options: maybe I’m just wrong, or maybe I’m mostly right but am just missing a couple steps.
We’ve got lots of people commenting with processes that will sort the elements back out, so I think op was mostly right, just missing a lot of little processes.