Density deficit of the Earth's core revealed by a multi-megabar primary pressure scale

TL;DR

This study develops a new primary pressure scale for Earth's core pressures, revealing previous estimates overstate pressures by at least 20%, impacting our understanding of core composition and temperature.

Contribution

It introduces a multi-megabar pressure scale based on combined acoustic velocity and density measurements, improving accuracy for planetary interior studies.

Findings

Previous pressure scales overestimate by at least 20% at 230 GPa.

The Earth's inner core may contain twice as much light element as previously thought.

The inner core temperature could be significantly higher than current estimates.

Abstract

An accurate pressure scale is a fundamental requirement to understand planetary interiors. Here, we establish a primary pressure scale extending to the multi-megabar pressures of the Earth's core, by combined measurement of the acoustic velocities and the density from a rhenium sample in a diamond anvil cell using inelastic x-ray scattering and x-ray diffraction. Our scale agrees well with previous primary scales and shock Hugoniots in each experimental pressure range, and reveals that previous scales have overestimated laboratory pressures by at least 20% at 230 gigapascals. It suggests that the light element content in the Earth's inner core (the density deficit relative to iron) is likely to be double what was previously estimated, or the Earth's inner core temperature is much higher than expected, or some combination thereof.