Heat Flow in Earth's Core From Invariant Electrical Resistivity of Fe‐Si on the Melting Boundary to 9 GPa: Do Light Elements Matter?

Abstract

AbstractThe electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity of liquid Fe alloys are the least constrained parameters in Earth's outer core (OC). These parameters are important as they modulate energy budget available for the geodynamo and affect the spatiotemporal evolution of the core. We report results of electrical resistivity measurements on solid and liquid Fe‐4.5 wt%Si from 3–9 GPa using a large volume multianvil press. The internally modified 18/11 octahedron cell was used to maintain the geometry of the liquid sample and to delay the onset of contamination. Electrical resistivity of solid Fe‐4.5Si decreases steadily with pressure and is very sensitive to increasing temperature‐driven onset of phase transitions. Along the melting boundary and within error, electrical resistivity remains constant and assumes the same value of 120 μΩcm as observed in pure liquid Fe. The results are interpreted in the context of icosahedral short‐range order (ISRO) structures that exhibit higher concentration with increasing pressure. Along the melting line, the increasing concentration of ISROs reduces charge carrier mean free path and prevents decrease of electrical resistivity with increasing pressure as seen in liquid metals, Cu, Ag, and Au, which do not have ISROs. In light of recent developments in understanding of the structure and dynamics of liquid transition metals and alloys, we postulate that our findings are applicable to other Fe alloys in the OC with small light element (C, S, and O) content. We calculated an adiabatic heat flow of 9.4–12 TW at the OC‐CMB interface, which admits thermal convection.