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Earth’s core could be the largest terrestrial carbon reservoir
- Source :
- Communications Earth & Environment, Vol 2, Iss 1, Pp 1-10 (2021)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Nature Portfolio, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Evaluating carbon’s candidacy as a light element in the Earth’s core is critical to constrain the budget and planet-scale distribution of this life-essential element. Here we use first principles molecular dynamics simulations to estimate the density and compressional wave velocity of liquid iron-carbon alloys with ~4-9 wt.% carbon at 0-360 gigapascals and 4000-7000 kelvin. We find that for an iron-carbon binary system, ~1-4 wt.% carbon can explain seismological compressional wave velocities. However, this is incompatible with the ~5-7 wt.% carbon that we find is required to explain the core’s density deficit. When we consider a ternary system including iron, carbon and another light element combined with additional constraints from iron meteorites and the density discontinuity at the inner-core boundary, we find that a carbon content of the outer core of 0.3-2.0 wt.%, is able to satisfy both properties. This could make the outer core the largest reservoir of terrestrial carbon. A carbon content in Earth’s outer core between 0.3 and 2.0 % by weight, along with at least two other light elements, is compatible with observational constraints, according to molecular dynamics simulations, and could make the core Earth’s largest carbon reservoir.
- Subjects :
- QE1-996.5
Mineralogy
chemistry.chemical_element
Geology
Outer core
Core (optical fiber)
Environmental sciences
Discontinuity (linguistics)
Meteorite
chemistry
General Earth and Planetary Sciences
GE1-350
Binary system
Carbon
Longitudinal wave
Earth (classical element)
General Environmental Science
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 26624435
- Volume :
- 2
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Communications Earth & Environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....47107734e7206651c94991fc1d6f26c0