Electronic heat trap grips deep Earth

Thursday, November 13, 2008 - 10:56 in Earth & Climate

The key to understanding Earth's evolution, including how our atmosphere gained oxygen and how volcanoes and earthquakes form, is to look deep, really deep, into the lower mantle - a region some 400 to 1,800 miles (660 to 2,900 kilometres) below the surface. Researchers at the Carnegie Institution's Geophysical Laboratory simulated conditions at these depths and recently discovered that the concentration of highly oxidised (ferric) iron (Fe3+) in the two major mantle minerals is key to moving heat in that region...

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