Thermochemical flows couple the Earth's inner core growth to mantle heterogeneity

Julien Aubert (), Hagay Amit, Gauthier Hulot and Peter Olson
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Julien Aubert: Dynamique des Fluides Géologiques,
Hagay Amit: Géomagnétisme, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université Paris-Diderot, INSU/CNRS, 4, Place Jussieu, 75252, Paris cedex 05, France
Gauthier Hulot: Géomagnétisme, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Université Paris-Diderot, INSU/CNRS, 4, Place Jussieu, 75252, Paris cedex 05, France
Peter Olson: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 454, issue 7205, 758-761

Abstract: How the other hemisphere lives The uppermost 100 km of the Earth's inner core is subject to an east–west divide: seismic waves travel more rapidly and are attenuated more severely in the eastern than in the western hemisphere, and the west is more anisotropic (that is, seismic waves travel at different speeds in different directions) than the eastern hemisphere. The origin of this hemispherical dichotomy has remained enigmatic. Aubert et al. now show that a model incorporating thermochemical convection and dynamo action can account for these effects by producing a large-scale, long-term outer core flow that couples the heterogeneity of the inner core with that of the lower mantle.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07109

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