The role of the Earth's mantle in controlling the frequency of geomagnetic reversals

Abstract

A series of computer simulations of the Earth's dynamo illustrates how the thermal structure of the lowermost mantle might affect convection and magnetic-field generation in the fluid core. Eight different patterns of heat flux from the core to the mantle are imposed over the core–mantle boundary. Spontaneous magnetic dipole reversals and excursions occur in seven of these cases, although sometimes the field only reverses in the outer part of the core, and then quickly reverses back. The results suggest correlations among the frequency of reversals, the duration over which the reversals occur, the magnetic-field intensity and the secular variation. The case with uniform heat flux at the core–mantle boundary appears most ‘Earth-like’. This result suggests that variations in heat flux at the core–mantle boundary of the Earth are smaller than previously thought, possibly because seismic velocity anomalies in the lowermost mantle might have more of a compositional rather than thermal origin, or because of enhanced heat flux in the mantle's zones of ultra-low seismic velocity.