“Snowfall” in Earth’s core and the nature
of the inner-core boundary
Jeffrey Pigott – Mineral Physics (Ohio State)
Jackie Li – Mineral Physics (U of Michigan)
Bin Chen – Mineral Physics ( U of Michigan)
Matt Armentrout – Mineral Physics (UCLA)
Antonio Buono – Mineral Physics (MIT)
John Hernlund – Geodynamics (UC-Berkeley)
Jodi Gaeman – Geodynamics (U of Maryland)
Lauren Waszek – Seismology (Cambridge)
CIDER 2010 - KITP
PREM
AK135
PREM2
Outer Core
F-layer
Inner Core
Hauck et al., 2006 (JGR)
Chen et al., 2008 (GRL)
Zou et al., 2008 (JGR)
MP meeting (Ann Arbor)/2010 Fall AGU
 Nov 2010
 Equations of state,
melting curves,
compositional gradients
 Project still broadly
defined in terms of
interdisciplinary aspect
MP meeting (Ann Arbor, Nov 2011)
 Parameter space for
“snowing” using
seismic, experimental,
and theoretical
constraints
 Snowing – Fe-S, Fe-C?,
Fe-Si?
 No snow – Pure Fe, FeH, likely Fe-C and Fe-Si
Top of F-layer
 Relationship between
melting curve and
adiabat
 Can solid/liquid fraction
account for Vp
gradient?
Geodynamics
 Evolution of thermal,
compositonal, and
structural profiles
with time
 Stability of F-layer
 Origin of stratified
layer
Comments and Suggestions
 Defined leadership role
 Positives
 Easy exchange among different disciplines at CIDER
 Helpful interaction within MP sub-group
 Collaboration that otherwise would not have occurred
 Negatives
 Difficulty following up with interdisciplinary communication
 Short (~3-5 day) semi-annual workshops for established groups
 Difficulty generating a concrete product
 Viewed as a “side-project”