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Geophysics

Double-crossed again

Nature volume 434, pages 834–835 (2005)Cite this article

An idea that a mineral phase transition may occur not once, but twice, close to the core–mantle boundary has been tested with seismic data. The resulting picture of the deep Earth is sure to provoke debate.

Thermal boundary layers within planets act like thermal bottlenecks, controlling the rate at which heat escapes from the planet and regulating much of its internal behaviour. In the solid Earth, there are two major thermal boundary layers: the lithosphere at the top of Earth's mantle, and the D″ layer at the bottom of the mantle. If we knew the temperature increase across the D″ layer, we would have a sense of the amount of heat flowing out of the core, and thus the power that drives the core geodynamo and the generation of plumes in the mantle.

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Figure 1: Perovskite (Pv) and post-perovskite (pPv) within Earth's lower mantle.

References

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  1. the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St Louis, 63130, Missouri, USA

    Michael E. Wysession & Viatcheslav S. Solomatov

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  1. Michael E. Wysession
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  2. Viatcheslav S. Solomatov
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Wysession, M., Solomatov, V. Double-crossed again. Nature 434, 834–835 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/434834a

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