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Exploring Thermodynamic Properties of Earth’s Core-Forming Materials

Project description

Earth’s core-forming materials: phase relations and densities in iron-light element systems

The Earth’s core generates Earth’s magnetic field. Features established when it formed contain information about the planet’s origin and evolution. The European Research Council-funded Earth core project will construct a thermodynamic model of the Earth’s iron (Fe)-rich core with a focus on its light elements and their modulation by pressure (P), temperature (T) and the chemical environment. The team will conduct high-P-T experiments with various types of heating, in situ X-ray diffraction and chemical analyses. These will inform thermodynamic calculations to obtain physical properties difficult to determine directly by experiment. Project outcomes will shed light on the origin and evolution of Earth and other terrestrial planets with metallic cores.

Objective

It is known that the Earth’s core is less dense than pure iron by about 7%, which is due to the presence of a light element(s) such as Si, S, C, O, and H. The goal of this project is to construct a thermodynamic model of the Earth’s central core. A particular focus is on the identification of the light element because the inclusion of these elements in iron liquid depends on the pressure (P), temperature (T), and chemical environment and hence provides us invaluable information about the origin and evolution of the solid Earth. We will examine phase relations and density of phases in Fe-light element systems by conducting high-P-T experiments and employing thermodynamic calculations based on the experimental data.
High-P-T experiments will be conducted in a diamond anvil cell with three different kinds of heating techniques: laser heating, external-resistive heating, and internal-resistive heating. Of the three, the internal-resistive heating system is a special technique that I have developed and employed and I am currently generating 5000 K at 200 GPa with it. Structure of phases will be analysed by in-situ X-ray diffraction. Chemical analysis will also be employed on samples to determine element partitioning between the phases.
I will also employ thermodynamic calculations based on the experimental data to fully understand the thermodynamic properties of the materials and obtain physical properties which are difficult to directly determine by experiment such as sound velocity of liquids.
From the thermodynamic models, I will calculate the physical properties of light element-bearing iron liquids and compare them with seismologically constrained values of the Earth’s core to find out the best matching composition. From these results, I will discuss the physical and chemical environments during the core formation and implicate in the origin and evolution of the Earth. Also the results will be applied to other terrestrial planets which have metallic cores.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

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Host institution

THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Net EU contribution
€ 1 891 765,00
Address
OLD COLLEGE, SOUTH BRIDGE
EH8 9YL Edinburgh
United Kingdom

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Region
Scotland Eastern Scotland Edinburgh
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
€ 1 891 765,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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