Low viscosity of the Earth’s inner core

Anatoly B. Belonoshko (), Jie Fu, Taras Bryk, Sergei I. Simak and Maurizio Mattesini
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Anatoly B. Belonoshko: Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Jie Fu: Ningbo University
Taras Bryk: National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Sergei I. Simak: Linköping University
Maurizio Mattesini: Complutense University of Madrid

Nature Communications, 2019, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract The Earth’s solid inner core is a highly attenuating medium. It consists mainly of iron. The high attenuation of sound wave propagation in the inner core is at odds with the widely accepted paradigm of hexagonal close-packed phase stability under inner core conditions, because sound waves propagate through the hexagonal iron without energy dissipation. Here we show by first-principles molecular dynamics that the body-centered cubic phase of iron, recently demonstrated to be thermodynamically stable under the inner core conditions, is considerably less elastic than the hexagonal phase. Being a crystalline phase, the body-centered cubic phase of iron possesses the viscosity close to that of a liquid iron. The high attenuation of sound in the inner core is due to the unique diffusion characteristic of the body-centered cubic phase. The low viscosity of iron in the inner core enables the convection and resolves a number of controversies.

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10346-2

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