The viscosity of liquid iron at the physical conditions of the Earth's core

Gilles A. de Wijs, Georg Kresse, Lidunka Vočadlo, David Dobson, Dario Alfè, Michael J. Gillan () and Geoffrey D. Price
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Gilles A. de Wijs: Keele University, Keele
Georg Kresse: Keele University, Keele
Lidunka Vočadlo: Research School of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Birkbeck College and University College London
David Dobson: Research School of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Birkbeck College and University College London
Dario Alfè: Keele University, Keele
Michael J. Gillan: Keele University, Keele
Geoffrey D. Price: Research School of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Birkbeck College and University College London

Nature, 1998, vol. 392, issue 6678, 805-807

Abstract: Abstract It is thought that the Earth's outer core consists mainly of liquid iron and that the convection of this metallic liquid gives rise to the Earth's magnetic field. A full understanding of this convection is hampered, however, by uncertainty regarding the viscosity of theouter core. Viscosity estimates from various sources span no less than 12 orders of magnitude1,2, and it seems unlikely that thisuncertainty will be substantially reduced by experimental measurements in the near future. Here we present dynamical first-principles simulations of liquid iron which indicate that the viscosity of iron at core temperatures and pressures is at the low end of the range of previous estimates — roughly 10 times that of typical liquid metals at ambient pressure. This estimate supports the approximation commonly made in magnetohydrodynamic models that the outer core is an inviscid fluid3,4,5 undergoing small-scale circulation and turbulent convection6, rather than large-scale global circulation.

Date: 1998
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DOI: 10.1038/33905

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