Heavy Iron Isotopes Are Leaking From The Earth's Core
Things are happening at the border of the Earth's core and mantle. It seems that various iron isotopes flow there. The heavier upward and the lighter downward. This process could be running for billions of years and allow heavier iron isotopes to reach even the Earths surface.
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We literally have the Earth's core under our feet. Just it is so deep that it is a faraway land about which we likely know less than about some of the planets of our Solar system. But, scientists are working on it and this time they are bringing us very interesting news. Recently, they found out that iron is leaking from the molten core of Earth in the form of heavier isotopes.
Heavy Up – Light Down
This was found out by Charles Lesher and his colleagues from the University of California, Davis and Aarhus University in Denmark. These scientists were studying the behavior of iron inside the core of our planet. Their research could help us understand the not very well understood processes inside of the Earth's core and mantle.
From what we know about the depths of the Earth there is a border between the more solid mantle and the liquid core at roughly 2,900 kilometers deep. In this area, the temperature significantly lowers. There is more than 1,000° Celsius of a temperature difference between the hot core and the colder mantle.
Lesher and his colleagues claim that the heavier iron isotopes are migrating upwards towards the colder area of the mantle. The lighter isotopes are heading in the opposite way – into the core. This should allow the mantle to get material from the core – enriched with heavier isotopes. The individual isotopes differ in the number of neutrons in them making it easy to figure out their weight.
Understanding the physical and chemical processes that take place at the border between the core and the mantle are important for proper analyzing and interpreting seismic “photos” acquired when seismic waves travel through the planet.
But, getting to the core is somewhat of an impossible task – at least for now. That is why the scientists analyzed the movement of the iron isotopes using experiments done at different pressures and high temperatures. Their findings could explain – for example – why there is a higher amount of heavy iron isotopes in the minerals of the mantle than in chondrites – primordial meteorites from the time when the Solar system got created. If Lesher's team is correct than the heavy iron isotopes are leaking from the core for billions of years.
Computer simulations even show that the material from the core can reach even the surface of our planet. All it needs to do is to get mixed into the flows of hot material rising through the mantle and reach a nice lava pocket which will later erupt through a volcano.
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