"Snowing" Core in Earth?

Details "Snowing" Core in Earth? "Snowing" Core in Earth?

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmgp34a..01l&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #GP34A-01

Physics

1507 Core Processes (1213, 8115), 1510 Dynamo: Theories And Simulations, 3924 High-Pressure Behavior, 7207 Core (1212, 1213, 8124), 8115 Core Processes (1213, 1507)

Scientific paper

As a planet cools, an initially molten core gradually solidifies. Solidification occurs at shallow depths in the form of "snow", if the liquidus temperature gradient of the core composition is smaller than the adiabatic temperature gradient in the core. Experimental data on the melting behavior of iron-sulfur binary system suggest that the cores of Mercury and Ganymede are probably snowing at the present time. The Martian core is predicted to snow in the future, provided that the sulfur content falls into the range of 10 to 14 weight percent. Is the Earth's core snowing? If so, what are the surface manifestations? If the Earth's core snowed in the past, how did it affect the formation of the solid inner core and the geodynamo? Here, we evaluate the likelihood and consequences of a snowing core throughout the Earth's history, on the basis of mineral physics data describing the melting behavior, equation-of-state, and thermodynamic properties of iron-rich alloys at high pressures. We discuss if snowing in the present-day Earth can reproduce the shallow gradients of compressional wave velocity above the inner-core boundary, and whether or not snowing in the early Earth may reconcile the apparent young age of the solid inner core with a long-lived geodynamo.

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