2021 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Partial Melting of the Inner Core
| Project/Area Number |
19K04035
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| Research Institution | Tokyo Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
ハーンルンド ジョン 東京工業大学, 地球生命研究所, 教授 (30723712)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | core composition / inner core / Earth structure |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
In the final year of the funded research project: (1) Student Irene Bonati who helped on this project graduated with a doctorate degree. (2) We finished writing the remainder of the codes and results have been included in Dr. Bonati's thesis. (3) We published several results in high profile journals citing support from this grant, and more are presently in preparation for submission in FY2022.
Our most important result: We have discovered a new way to constrain the chemical composition of the Earth's core by integrating the phase diagram with models of inner core crystallization and structure. Working with mineral physics colleagues and the latest high pressure experiments, we are now able to make several important predictions about core chemistry and inner core growth.
Our second most important result: We have shown that if the inner core melts, it will take place as a partial melt. This will influence the dynamical processes that actively deform the inner core and may explain some of the complexity of its seismological structure.
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