Evidence for an oxygen-depleted liquid outer core of the Earth

Haijun Huang, Yingwei Fei (), Lingcang Cai, Fuqian Jing, Xiaojun Hu, Hongsen Xie, Lianmeng Zhang and Zizheng Gong
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Haijun Huang: School of Sciences, Wuhan University of Technology
Yingwei Fei: Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington
Lingcang Cai: National Key Laboratory of Shock Wave and Detonation Physics, Institute of Fluid Physics, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang, Sichuan 621900, China
Fuqian Jing: School of Sciences, Wuhan University of Technology
Xiaojun Hu: School of Sciences, Wuhan University of Technology
Hongsen Xie: Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, Guizhou 550002, China
Lianmeng Zhang: State Key Lab of Advanced Technology for Materials Synthesis and Processing, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China
Zizheng Gong: National Key Laboratory of Science and Technology on Reliability and Environment Engineering, Beijing Institute of Spacecraft Environment Engineering

Nature, 2011, vol. 479, issue 7374, 513-516

Abstract: Reduced circumstances in Earth's core Earth's liquid outer core consists mainly of liquid iron alloyed with about 10% (by weight) of light elements. Oxygen has been proposed as a major light element in the core, based on cosmochemical arguments and chemical reactions during accretion, but here Huang et al. report data that virtually rule out oxygen as a major light element in the liquid outer core. They compare density and sound-velocity measurements in shock-wave experiments in the Fe–S–O system of Earth's core with geophysical observations. Their findings are consistent with an oxygen-depleted core, and a reduced environment during early Earth accretion, with important implications for early Earth accretion models.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10621

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