Physics
Scientific paper
Jan 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000pepi..117..179l&link_type=abstract
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Volume 117, Issue 1-4, p. 179-196.
Physics
7
Scientific paper
The dynamical state of the outer core is quantified, assuming that the convective pattern consists of buoyant parcels which rise to the top, forcing a broad descending flow in the bulk of the outer core. This convective circulation is assumed sufficiently rapid that the outer core is close to a well-mixed adiabatic state. Small compositional deviations from this state, resulting from the secular evolution of composition as the solid inner core grows, make the descending portion of the outer core stably stratified. Thermal deviations result from the mismatch between effective volumetric heating and the divergence of conducted heat. Effective volumetric heating is the sum of secular cooling, compressional heating and Ohmic heating. Divergence of heat is negative and larger in magnitude than effective volumetric heating throughout the core, resulting in a stabilizing thermal gradient in the descending fluid which reinforces the compositional gradient. The compositional and thermal contributions to the stable stratification are of comparable magnitudes. The strength of stratification depends on the strength of the convective circulation, which is unquantified. This stratification, coupled with Coriolis and Lorentz forces, has the potential to inhibit turbulence in the descending portions of the outer core. The thermal and compositional perturbations arising from processes at the inner-core boundary and core-mantle boundary are quantified and the dynamic behavior of the rising parcels is discussed and quantified. Depending on the sign and magnitude of exchanges of heat and composition, convective motions may be inhibited or suppressed near the top of the outer core.
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