Core-mantle co-evolution. An interdisciplinary approach / Коэволюция ядра и мантии. Междисциплинарный подход

The Earth’s deep interior, being physically inaccessible, is difficult to study directly. The necessarily indirect methods used in its study are best pursued collaboratively in order to bring all possible sources of knowledge to bear on the topic, hence the need for interdisciplinary research. Over recent decades, there have been advances in investigating the dynamics of the Earth’s deep interior. In terms of experimental and observation work, there have been innovations in high-temperature and high-pressure experiments (employing diamond anvil cells and synchrotron radiation facilities), dramatically improved geochemical analyses aided by particle physics detectors, and seismic wave observations and theory. In terms of computational work, methodological innovations and increased computational power have facilitated theoretical calculations of mineral properties and fluid dynamical simulations at the micro and macro scale.
This monograph describes results of the research project “Core-Mantle Co-Evolution” that was selected by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports (MEXT) in Japan. It was a component of a national program of innovative research projects intended to apply technological innovations in an interdisciplinary framework to contemporary research questions, in this case the composition, dynamics and evolution of the Earth’s deep interior.
Recent observational and experimental investigations have significantly advanced our understanding of the structure and constituent materials of the deep Earth. However, details of the chemical composition of the mantle, accounting for 85% of the volume of the entire Earth, and light elements expected to exist in the core, corresponding to the remaining 15%, have remained unclear even after 60 years of research in various fields of science related to deep Earth. <...>