Ab initio determination on the thermal evolution of the Earth's core

TL;DR

This study uses ab initio simulations to analyze how Ni affects the thermal and electrical conductivities of Earth's outer core, impacting the inner core's age and the core's thermal stratification.

Contribution

It provides the first high-pressure ab initio calculations of FeNi mixtures' conductivities, revealing Ni's role in prolonging inner core age and reducing outer core stratification.

Findings

Ni decreases thermal conductivity compared to pure Fe.

Inner core age is slightly extended with FeNi mixture.

Ni reduces the thickness of outer core thermal stratification.

Abstract

Earth's magnetic field is generated by the liquid outer core and sensitively depends on the thermal conductivity of the core. The dominant component of the Earth's core is Fe and Ni. However, current estimates on FeNi mixtures have not been previously tested at high pressures. In this paper, ab initio simulations were first applied to calculations of the thermal and electrical conductivities of FeNi mixtures at Earth's outer core conditions. Compared with the results for pure Fe, the addition of Ni decreases the thermal conductivity (12.30 W/m/K on average) along the adiabatic curve in the outer core. Based on the restriction of the entropy production rate or Joule losses, the existence of Ni prolongs the age of the inner core. The age of the inner core is 0.66 Ga with pure Fe and 0.67 Ga with an FeNi mixture when heat flow at the core-mantle boundary is 12 TW. In contrast, we observe that Ni decreases the thickness of thermal stratification in the outer core by analyzing the effective temperature gradient. After inner core solidification, the thickness of thermal stratification is 417.02 km with pure Fe and 320.12 km with an FeNi mixture when the cooling rate at the core-mantle boundary is 126 K/Ga.