Abstract
The Earth’s iron-rich inner core is seismically anisotropic, which may be due to the preferred orientation of Fe-rich hexagonal close packed (hcp) alloy crystals. Elastic anisotropy in a hexagonal crystal is related to its c/a axial ratio; therefore, it is important to know how this ratio depends on volume (or pressure), temperature, and composition. Experimental data on the axial ratio of iron and alloys in the Fe-Ni-Si system from 15 previous studies are combined here to parameterize the effects of these variables. The axial ratio increases with increasing volume, temperature, silicon content, and nickel content. When an hcp phase coexists with another structure, sample recovery and chemical analysis from each pressure-temperature point is one method for determining the phase’s composition and thus the position of the phase boundary. An alternate method is demonstrated here, using this parameterization to calculate the composition of an hcp phase whose volume, temperature, and axial ratio are measured. The hcp to hcp+B2 phase boundary in the Fe-FeSi system is parameterized as a function of pressure, temperature, and composition, showing that a silicon-rich inner core may be an hcp+B2 mixture. These findings could help explain observations of a layered seismic anisotropy structure in the Earth’s inner core.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
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Artikel in diesem Heft
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- Stable and metastable silicate liquid immiscibility in ferrobasalts
- When was the Earth’s conveyor belt set in motion?
- Trace element partitioning into sulfide: How lithophile elements become chalcophile and vice versa
- Petrology on Mars
- Hf and Nd isotope systematics of early Archean komatiites from surface sampling and ICDP drilling in the Barberton Greenstone Belt, South Africa
- Quasicrystals at extreme conditions: The role of pressure in stabilizing icosahedral Al63Cu24Fe13 at high temperature
- Tracking the thermal decomposition of plasma-sprayed hydroxylapatite
- Experimental constraints on bubble formation and growth during magma ascent: A review
- Ankerite grains with dolomite cores: A diffusion chronometer for low- to medium-grade regionally metamorphosed clastic sediments
- Crystal structure, high-pressure, and high-temperature behavior of carbonates in the K2Mg(CO3)2–Na2Mg(CO3)2 join
- Temperature micro-mapping in oscillatory-zoned chlorite: Application to study of a green-schist facies fault zone in the Pyrenean Axial Zone (Spain)
- Micro- and nano-characterization of Zn-clays in nonsulfide supergene ores of southern Peru
- Mineralogical characterization of individual growth structures of Mn-nodules with different Ni+Cu content from the central Pacific Ocean
- The magma plumbing system of the Emeishan large igneous province and its role in basaltic magma differentiation in a continental setting
- Weathering of the Ethiopian volcanic province: A new weathering index to characterize and compare soils
- Recommended mineral-melt partition coefficients for FRTEs (Cu), Ga, and Ge during mantle melting
- Tetrahedral plot diagram: A geometrical solution for quaternary systems
- Investigations on alunogen under Mars-relevant temperature conditions: An example for a single-crystal-to-single-crystal phase transition
- Crystallization of calcium oxalate hydrates by interaction of calcite marble with fungus Aspergillus niger
- Direct and indirect evidence for free oxygen (O2–) in MO-silicate glasses and melts (M = Mg, Ca, Pb)
- Effect of fluid composition on growth rate of monazite in quartzite at 1.0 GPa and 1000 °C
- Determination of the full elastic tensor of single crystals using shear wave velocities by Brillouin spectroscopy
- Temperature dependence of the velocity-density relation for liquid metals under high pressure: Implications for the Earth’s outer core
- Thermal, compositional, and compressional demagnetization of cementite
- The MnCO3-II high-pressure polymorph of rhodocrosite
- Lanthanide tetrads in normalized rare element patterns of zircon from the Koktokay No. 3 granitic pegmatite, Altay, NW China
- Hydrogrossular, Ca3Al2(SiO4)3–x(H4O4)x: An ab initio investigation of its structural and energetic properties
- High-pressure synthesis of skiagite-majorite garnet and investigation of its crystal structure
- Mineralogical evolution of Fe–Si-rich layers at the olivine-water interface during carbonation reactions
- High-pressure spectroscopic study of siderite (FeCO3) with a focus on spin crossover
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- Apexite, NaMg(PO4)·9H2O, a new struvite-type phase with a heteropolyhedral cluster
- The mechanism of infiltration of metamorphic fluids recorded by hydration and carbonation of epidote-amphibolite facies metabasaltic sills in the SW Scottish Highlands
- The axial ratio of hcp Fe and Fe–Ni–Si alloys to the conditions of Earth’s inner core
- Shock-induced mobilization of metal and sulfide in planetesimals: Evidence from the Buck Mountains 005 (L6 S4) dike-bearing chondrite
- The accretion and differentiation of Earth under oxidizing conditions
- Dislocation microstructures in simple-shear-deformed wadsleyite at transition-zone conditions: Weak-beam dark-field TEM characterization of dislocations on the (010) plane
- Chemical composition and crystal structure of merrillite from the Suizhou meteorite