Composition of Earths mantle revisited

Research published last week in Science suggested that the makeup of the
Earth's lower mantle, which makes up the largest part of the Earth by
volume, is significantly different than previously thought.
The work, performed at the Advanced Photon Source at the U.S. Department
of Energys Argonne National Laboratory, will have a significant impact on
our understanding of the lower mantle, scientists said. Understanding the
composition of the mantle is essential to seismology, the study of
earthquakes and movement below the Earth's surface, and should shed light
on unexplained seismic phenomena observed there.
Though humans haven't yet managed to drill further than seven and a half
miles into the Earth, we've built a comprehensive picture of what's beneath
our feet through calculations and limited observation. We all live atop the
crust, the thin outer layer; just beneath is the mantle, outer core and finally
inner core. The lower portion of the mantle is the largest layer stretching
from 400 to 1,800 miles below the surface and gives off the most heat.
Until now, the entire lower mantle was thought to be composed of the same
mineral throughout: ferromagnesian silicate, arranged in a type of structure
called perovskite.
The pressure and heat of the lower mantle is intense more than 3,500
Fahrenheit. Materials may have very different properties at these conditions;
structures may exist there that would collapse at the surface.
To simulate these conditions, researchers use special facilities at the
Advanced Photon Source, where they shine high-powered lasers to heat up
the sample inside a pressure cell made of a pair of diamonds. Then they aim
powerful beams of X-rays at the sample, which hit and scatter in all
directions. By gathering the scatter data, scientists can reconstruct how the
atoms in the sample were arranged.
The team found that at conditions that exist below about 1,200 miles
underground, the ferromagnesian silicate perovskite actually breaks into two
separate phases. One contains nearly no iron, while the other is full of iron.
The iron-rich phase, called the H-phase, is much more stable under these
conditions.
"We still don't fully understand the chemistry of the H-phase," said lead
author and Carnegie Institution of Washington scientist Li Zhang. "But this
finding indicates that all geodynamic models need to be reconsidered to take

the H-phase into account. And there could be even more unidentified phases
down there in the lower mantle as well, waiting to be identified."
The facilities at Argonnes Advanced Photon Source were key to the findings,
said Carnegie scientist Yue Meng, also an author on the paper. "Recent
technological advances at our beamline allowed us to create the conditions
to simulate these intense temperatures and pressures and probe the
changes in chemistry and structure of the sample in situ," she said.
"What distinguished this work was the exceptional attention to detail in
every aspect of the research it demonstrates a new level for high-pressure
research," Meng added.
The paper, "Disproportionation of (Mg,Fe)SiO3 perovskite in Earths deep
lower mantle," was published in Science. Other Argonne coauthors were
Wenjun Liu and Ruqing Xu.
The work was performed at the High Pressure Collaborative Access Team
(HPCAT) beamline, which is run by the Geophysical Laboratory at the
Carnegie Institution of Washington. Wenge Yang and Lin Wang from the APSCarnegie Institution's High Pressure Synergetic Consortium (HPSynC) also
contributed to the paper.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and
performed at the HPCAT beamline of the Advanced Photon Source, which is
supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy
Sciences, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the National
Science Foundation. Portions of this work were performed at
GeoSoilEnviroCARS at the APS, run by the University of Chicago and
supported by the National Science Foundation and the DOE; at 34ID-E
beamline; and at Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The Advanced
Photon Source is supported by DOE's Office of Basic Energy