Melting of the Earth’s inner core

@article{Gubbins2011MeltingOT,
  title={Melting of the Earth’s inner core},
  author={David Gubbins and Binod Sreenivasan and Jon Mound and Sebastian Rost},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2011},
  volume={473},
  pages={361-363}
}

• David Gubbins, Binod Sreenivasan, +1 author Sebastian Rost
• Published 2011 in Nature
• DOI:10.1038/nature10068

The Earth’s magnetic field is generated by a dynamo in the liquid iron core, which convects in response to cooling of the overlying rocky mantle. The core freezes from the innermost surface outward, growing the solid inner core and releasing light elements that drive compositional convection. Mantle convection extracts heat from the core at a rate that has enormous lateral variations. Here we use geodynamo simulations to show that these variations are transferred to the inner-core boundary and… CONTINUE READING

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