Planet Dynamics and Evolution

The Earth’s inner core, outer core, lower mantle, upper mantle, the lithosphere, the surfaces and interiors of the Moon, Mars and Venus, meteorites, and, icy moons.

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Research highlights include:

• Pre-melting in the Earth’s inner core (Vocadlo, Brodholt, Wood)
• Nickel is “transparent” in the inner core, but as a result of temperature, not composition. (Vocadlo, Brodholt, Wood)
• The phase diagram of NiSi. (Wood, Dobson, Vocadlo)
• The stability and elasticity of phases of iron. (Vocadlo, Wood, Brodholt, Dobson)
• Electrical and Thermal conductivity of the Earth's core are 2-3 times higher than previously estimated. (Pozzo and Alfe`)
• New estimates of the concentrations of oxygen, silicon and sulphur in the core based on ab initio thermodynamic calculations. (Alfe)
• Melting curve of iron at Earth's core conditions. (Alfe)
• High temperature ab initio simulations provide the first robust high-temperature and pressure estimates for the elastic properties of pervoskite and post-perovskite (Brodholt)
• High-pressure apparatus capable of performing the first controlled rheology experiments under lower mantle conditions (Dobson)
• The first laboratory experiment that shows that intermediate seismicity can be caused by the dehydration of serpentine (Dobson)
• Evidence that impact melting is viable alternative to mantle plumes for the formation of a large igneous provinces (Jones)