Anisotropy of iron in the Earth's inner core

S. C. Singh and J.-P. Montagner
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S. C. Singh: Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris
J.-P. Montagner: Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris

Nature, 1999, vol. 400, issue 6745, 629-629

Abstract: Abstract Seismological studies1,3 suggest that there is 3-4% anisotropy of P-waves in the Earth's inner core. Hexagonal closed-packed solid iron has been proposed to be the major constituent of the inner core4, but a lack of knowledge about the elastic properties of this phase at inner-core pressures (330 to 360 GPa) and temperatures (4,000 to 8,000 K) prevents a conclusive interpretation of the seismic results in terms of the inner-core composition. The elastic properties of hexagonal closed-packed iron have been computed from first principles using a theoretical method4 and Mao et al.5 have recently measured them by using X-ray diffraction and ultrasound techniques at pressures of up to 211 GPa. Despite these exciting technological achievements, we believe that the new results may be misleading.

Date: 1999
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DOI: 10.1038/23171

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