Jupiter's and Saturn's fine-scale magnetic fields     

James W. Warwick  David R. Evans 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1984,36(1):85-89

Jupiter's field is strongly dipolar but with relatively large high order moments compared to the Earth's. In situ magnetic field data allow us to interpret most of the Earth-based microwave observations of Jupiter, with the exception of Branson's hot spot. Decametric emissions have a complex rotational pattern which has been stable since 1950; their agreement with the spacecraft magnetic fields is much less satisfactory than that of the microwaves. We conclude that the extrapolation of magnetic fields from the spacecraft to the surface of Jupiter is in error by 40% in the Southern Hemisphere.Saturn's radio emissions show complexities similar to Jupiter's. They are strongly asymmetric about the rotational axis, although Saturn's Field is nearly axisymmetric. Their strong asymmetry suggests strong longitudinal variations in the magnetic field a few thousand kilometers from the cloud tops, in conflict with the field measured aboard Pioneer 11.The magnetic fields within a few thousand kilometers of either Jupiter's or Saturn's cloud tops are probably unknown. It is discouraging that more is not known about the fields after a total of 7 encounters. Perhaps the Galileo probe can test usefully models of the Jupiter field, even if its measurements refer to just one trajectory through the clouds. An arguable case can be made that the giant planets exhibit complexity of magnetic structure similar to the Sun.  相似文献   

Earth's magnetic field modelling and earth's structure and evolution     

D.P. Zidarov 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1985,37(1):74-86

The advantages of the approximation of the Earth's magnetic field by means of the field of the so-called natural magnetic sources are discussed. The shifting of these natural magnetic sources, determined for different epochs, is used to forecast the Earth's magnetic field and to draw conclusions about the motion of the corresponding part of the Earth. On the basis of the representation of the Earth's magnetic field from several past geological epochs as a field of one optimum dipole a new theory about the Earth's evolution is proposed.  相似文献   

Noble gases in the earth's mantle     

D.P. Thompson  A.R. Basu  E.W. Hennecke  O.K. Manuel 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1978,17(2):98-107

The abundances and isotopic compositions of noble gases in two samples from ultramafic xenoliths in alkali basalt, a young kaersutitic amphibole separated from a peridotite xenolith from Dish Hill, California and an ancient whole-rock lherzolite xenolith from Baja California, are reported and compared with the results of analyses on other mantle samples. In addition to previously recognized excesses of ³He and ¹²⁹Xe, our results indicate that ambient gases in the mantle show a general enrichment of the lighter-mass nonradiogenic isotopes of Ar, Kr and Xe, and Ar with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁶Ar = 3 · 10².  相似文献   

Geodynamics and state of the earth's interior     

Heinz Stiller  Siegfried Franck  Diedrich Möhlmann 《Journal of Geodynamics》1984,1(1):79-100

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Mascons and the moon's orientation     

H.J. Melosh 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1975,25(3):322-326

This letter reports the discovery of a relation between the moments of inertia of the mascons (taken about the moon's center) and the moon's moments of inertia. It is found that the principal axes of the mascons alone are nearly parallel to those of the moon. Possible explanations of this parallelism are discussed. If the mascons are associated with a layer of uncompensated basalt on the moon's nearside, then the parallelism can be adequately explained on the grounds that the mascons and basalts together determined the moon's orientation. On the other hand, the third-order harmonics of the moon's gravity field indicate that the excess mass controlling the moon's orientation is on the farside. It thus appears that the mascons have been emplaced in special sites whose position was controlled by the processes which produced the farside highlands.  相似文献   

Thermal regime of the Earth's core     

John Verhoogen 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1973,7(1):47-58

The outer core is assumed to consist of iron and sulfur, with a small amount of potassium that generates heat by radioactive decay of sim||pre|40 K. Two cases are considered, corresponding respectively to a high rate of heat production (Q = 2 · 10¹² cal./sec, about 0.1% K), and to a low rate (Q = 2 · 10¹¹ cal./sec). The temperature at a depth of 2800 km in the mantle is taken to be 3300°K (Wang, 1972). The temperature T_c at the core-mantle boundary depends on whether or not a density gradient in the lowermost layer D″ of the mantle prevents convection in that layer. In the first case, and for high Q, T_c = 4500–5000°K. In the second case, or for low Q, T_c ≈ 3500°K.The heat-conduction equation is used to calculate the temperature T_i at the inner-core boundary in the absence of convection. For high Q, T_i ? T_c ≈ 1600°K; for low Q, T_i ? T_c ≈ 160°K. Corresponding temperature gradients at r = r_c and r = r_i are listed in Table I.The adiabatic gradient at the top of the core is calculated by the method of Stewart (1970). It strongly depends on the parameters (ρ₀, c₀, γ₀, etc.) that characterize core material at low pressure. Stewart has drawn graphs that allow the selection of sets of parameters that are consistent with seismic velocities and a given density distribution in the core. Some acceptable sets of parameters are listed in Table II. Many sets yield temperatures T_c in the range 3500–5000°K; some give an adiabatic gradient steeper than the conductive gradient and are compatible with convection; others do not. Since properties of FeS melts remain unknown, there is at present no way of selecting any set in preference to another.Properties of the FeS system at low pressure suggest the possible appearance of immiscibility at high temperature in liquids of low sulfur content; accordingly, the inner-core boundary is thought to represent equilibrium between a solid (FeNi) inner core and a liquid layer containing only a small amount of sulfur; layer F in turn is in equilibrium with another liquid (forming layer E) containing more sulfur, and slightly less dense, than F. The temperature T_i at the inner-core boundary is about 6000–6500°K for high Q and T_c ≈ 4500–5000°K. It is consistent with Alder's (1966) and Leppaluoto's (1972) estimates of the melting point of iron at 3.3 Mbar, but not with that of Higgins and Kennedy (1971).  相似文献   

Poisson's ratio behaviour in various crystalline rocks: application to the study of the Earth's interior     

A.P. Tarkov  V.V. Vavakin 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1982,29(1):24-29

The study of Poisson's ratio (σ) behaviour in various crystalline rocks under different temperatures and pressures shows this parameter to depend upon the rock composition rather than upon P-T conditions. The results of this study are presented in the form of a comparison of σ(z) distributions within the consolidated crust and continental upper mantle and the specific variations of σ in crust and mantle rocks underlying the Voronezh crystalline massif (VCM). These investigations, which are based upon seismic and seismological data as well as high pressure experiments, should clarify in particular the composition and petrology of the Earth's interior.  相似文献   

Birch's diagram: Some new observations     

Liu Lin-Gun 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1974,8(1):56-62

Birch's diagram plotting the hydrodynamic sound velocity versus density for several metals is used in many of his publications and a number of textbooks to demonstrate the chemical changes from the earth's mantle to the core. This diagram is thoroughly discussed in this paper on the basis of theory and the periodic property for the density of elements. Birch's conclusion that “even without information concerning chemical abundances, these relations indicate that the mantle is composed principally of light elements and the core of elements of the iron group” is not convincing in the view of the present study. A more detailed velocity-density plot for all the solid elements having their densities in the range 1.5 – 8 g/cm³ excludes any elements lighter (of lower atomic weight or number) than vanadium as likely candidates for core values.  相似文献   

A note on convection in the earth's mantle     

J.L. Robinson 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1974,21(2):190-193

In the present note a boundary-layer model of thermal convection throughout the mantle is outlined. It is shown that recent criticisms of mantle-wide convection by A.E. Ringwood do not apply to this model. The phase transitions discussed by Ringwood are consistent with the model, and in fact provide an additional driving force for the convective motion. It is further noted that the model offers explanations of the core-mantle coupling hypothesized by R. Hide from consideration of correlations between the earth's magnetic and gravity fields, and of the appearance in several parts of the world of pairs of trenches separated by distances of the order of 2000 km.  相似文献   

Applications of liquid state physics to the Earth's core     

D.J. Stevenson 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1980,22(1):42-52

By use of the modern theory of liquids and some guidance from the hard-sphere model of liquid structure, the following new results have been derived for application to the Earth's outer core. (1) dK/$\text{d}\text{P ? 5 ? 5. 6P}$/K, where K is the incompressibility and P the pressure. This is valid for a high-pressure liquid near its melting point, provided that the pressure is derived primarily from a strongly repulsive pair potential φ. This result is consistent with seismic data, except possibly in the lowermost region of the outer core, and demonstrates the approximate universality of dK/dP proposed by Birch (1939) and Bullen (1949). (2) dlnT_M/dlnρ = (γC_V ? 1)/($\text{C}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>V</mtext>}}\text{?}\text{3}\text{2}\text{),}\text{where}\text{T}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>M</mtext>}}$ is the melting point, ρ the density, γ the atomic thermodynamic Grüneisen parameter and C_V the atomic contribution to the specific heat in units of Boltzmann's constant per atom. This reduces to Lindemann's law for C_V = 3 and provides further support for the approximate validity of this law. (3) It follows that the “core paradox” of Higgins and Kennedy can only occur if $\text{γ <}\text{2}\text{3}$. However, it is shown that $\text{γ <}\text{2}\text{3}\text{? ∫}{}^{\mathrm{\infty }}{}_0\text{(?g/?T)}{}_{\mathrm{\rho }}\text{r(}\text{d}\text{/}\text{d}\text{r)(r}{}^2\text{φ)}\text{d}\text{r > 0}$, which cannot be achieved for any strongly repulsive pair potential φ and the corresponding pair distribution function g. It is concluded that $\text{γ >}\text{2}\text{3}$ and that the core paradox is almost certainly impossible for any conceivable core composition. Approximate calculations suggest that γ ～ 1.3–1.5 in the core. Further work on the thermodynamics of the liquid core must await development of a physically realistic pair potential, since existing pair potentials may be unsatisfactory.  相似文献   

Large impact craters and the moon's orientation     

H.J. Melosh 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1975,26(3):353-360

This paper investigates the idea that large impact events have caused the moon to change its orientation in space. It is found that the very largest impact events, such as those which formed Imbrium and Orientale, probably did reorient the moon. This reorientation is primarily due to the change in the moon's moments of inertia consequent upon crater formation. The impulse delivered by the impact can at most unlock the moon's synchronous rotation for a few thousand years, and is thus not of major importance. The moon will attain its new orientation in less than a few times 10⁴ years as a result of tidal friction. Since the large craters eventually are filled by isostatic rebound and extrusive igneous activity, the moon may eventually regain its original orientation unless other phenomena cause new changes in the distribution of mass on its surface.  相似文献   

Dissipation of the rare gases contained in the primordial Earth's atmosphere     

Minoru Sekiya  Kiyoshi Nakazawa  Chushiro Hayashi 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1980,50(1):197-201

If the Earth was formed by accumulation of rocky bodies in the presence of the gases of the primordial solar nebula, the Earth at this formation stage was surrounded by a massive primordial atmosphere (of about 1 × 10²⁶ g) composed mainly of H₂ and He. We suppose that the H₂ and He escaped from the Earth, owing to the effects of strong solar wind and EUV radiation, in stages after the solar nebula itself dissipated into the outer space.The primordial atmosphere also contained the rare gases Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe whose amounts were much greater than those contained in the present Earth's atmosphere. Thus, we have studied in this paper the dissipation of these rare gases due to the drag effect of outflowing hydrogen molecules. By means of the two-component gas kinetic theory and under the assumption of spherically symmetric flow, we have found that the outflow velocity of each rare gas relative to that of hydrogen is expressed in terms of only two parameters — the rate of hydrogen mass flow across the spherical surface under consideration and the temperature at this surface. According to this result, the rare gases were dissipated below the levels of their contents in the present atmosphere, when the mass loss rate of hydrogen was much greater than 1 × 10¹⁷ g/yr throughout the stages where the atmospheric mass decreased from 1 × 10²⁶ g to 4 × 10¹⁹ g.  相似文献   

Britain's oil     

《Marine pollution bulletin》1974,5(9):129-130

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Early Archaean rocks and geochemical evolution of the earth's crust     

R.K. O&#x;Nions  R.J. Pankhurst 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1978,38(1):211-236

Remnants of Early Archaean rocks (>FX3000 m.y. old) are reported from most continents. A critical review of the radiometric data shows that few of these are well authenticated and most are very limited in extent. The oldest are predominantly plutonic gneisses of tonalitic-to-granitic composition (e.g., the basement gneisses of West Greenland, Labrador, Rhodesia and South Africa). In all cases there are inclusions of meta-volcanic and sedimentary rocks with greenstone belt affinities which probably represent crust into which the igneous parents of the gneisses were intruded.The trace element chemistry of these very old rocks is reviewed in an attempt to establish the mechanism of formation of early crust and place constraints on the chemical evolution of the earth's mantle. “Mantle-type” Sr isotope compositions show that the sialic members of both early gneisses and greenstone belts were not derived from much older crustal differentiates, either at 3800 or at 2800 m.y. ago. However, trace element ratios such as K/Rb and Sr/Ba, and rare earth element abundances, are not consistent with direct derivation of the plutonic suite from the upper mantle and also rule out a common parentage for the tonalites and granites. An origin by partial melting of metamorphosed juvenile crust with a composition range equivalent to that represented by the greenstone belts is preferred. Tonalites resulted from high-pressure melting of mafic garnet-amphibolite and at least some of the granites from low-pressure melting of more felsic (possibly even sedimentary) material.The trace element chemistry of the greenstone belt volcanics is thought to characterize the composition of early mantle melts, although the best preserved and best documented cases are about 500–1000 m.y. younger than the oldest known gneisses. The dominant type is tholeiite with low incompatible element contents and light-depleted or essentially flat rare earth patterns, features even more marked in the ultramafic komatiites which represent large degrees of melting. More evolved calc-alkaline rocks with relative incompatible and light rare earth element enrichment are also important. With the exception of the ultramafic lavas, all these types can be matched by the chemistry of present-day oceanic volcanism.It is concluded that the range of trace element variations in the earth's mantle was comparable in early Archaean times to that at the present. This is supported by mass balance calculations for the lithophile elements which have been preferentially extracted into the crust. Thus the isotope and trace element evidence of the oldest rocks argues against primary differentiation of the crust either during accretion of the earth or during its first 500 m.y. as a solid body. Crust formation has probably occurred continuously, although worldwide evidence for magmatism at around 2800 m.y. ago probably marks a particularly active period.  相似文献   

The distribution of thermal diffusivity in the Earth's crust     

U. Seipold  W. Gutzeit 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1982,29(1):69-72

Data in the literature and additional measurements on the thermal diffusivities of granites, granulites and ultrabasic rocks at temperatures up to 1000 K and pressures to 2 GPa, have been used to propose a new model for thermal diffusivity distribution in the crust and upper mantle.The laboratory measurements were made using a pulse method or the Angstroem method with cylindrical heat flow. After making particular assumptions about the pressure and temperature distribution within the top 60 km the pressure and temperature dependencies of diffusivity were transformed into a depth dependence.The model is characterised by a continuous decrease of diffusivity to a depth of ～30 km where there is a small but rapid increase to a nearly constant value of 7.3 × 10^?3 cm² s^?1.  相似文献   

The influence of extrinsic pressure changes on the Earth's dynamo     

David Gubbins 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1983,33(4):255-259

Reversals of the Earth's magnetic field have been claimed to correlate with ice ages, tectonic events and falls of tectites. A physical mechanism is needed to relate reversals with the other events before these correlations can be taken seriously. One possible connection lies through changes in pressure in the core. If events high up in the mantle were to lead to changes in core pressure, this would affect the rate of freezing of the liquid core and modify the power supplied to the dynamo. A sufficiently large modification could set off a reversal or perhaps change the mode of operation of the dynamo from a non-reversing to a reversing state.The model of Gubbins et al., allows a quantitative calculation to be made for the effect of a pressure change on the energy release. Any sufficiently sudden pressure change would change the power, but it seems unrealistic to consider less than a 1000 year time scale. Relaxation of shear forces in the mantle, overturning of core fluid, and changes in magnetic fields all take place on about this time scale. According to the model, a pressure change of 0.1 bar over a 1000 years could change the power supply drastically.A continuous process of mantle differentiation leading to the formation of the upper mantle from an initially homogeneous mantle can only provide 10% of the required pressure change, but the effect cannot be ruled out as a power source for the dynamo because uncertainties in the calculations can amount to at least an order of magnitude. The other effects produce changes of up to 1% in the power supply, which may be sufficient to alter the characteristics of the dynamo and produce reversals or a change in reversal behaviour. Further speculation must await a better understanding of the dynamics of reversals, and of mantle processes.  相似文献   

Electromagnetic evidence for lateral inhomogeneities within the Earth's upper mantle     

R.G. Roberts 《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1983,33(3):198-212

The composition of the upper mantle is of great significance to our understanding of plate tectonics and global evolution. Information about the physical properties of the Earth at upper mantle depths, including lateral variations in electrical conductivity, can be deduced from measurements of the electric and magnetic fields at the Earth's surface. Electromagnetic methods appear to give poorer resolution than do some other methods, for example seismics, but as they are sensitive to quite different properties of a medium they provide a different and complementary class of information.The basic theory of electromagnetic sounding methods is briefly reviewed below, and evidence regarding lateral conductivity inhomogeneities in the Earth's upper mantle is examined. While lateral electrical conductivity inhomogeneities appear to be the rule rather than the exception, the interpretation of electromagnetic data still presents difficulties and the results from many regions are not as yet unambiguous. Where the data are of sufficient resolution, a rapid increase in electrical conductivity can usually be identified within the upper mantle. The depth to this highly conductive zone is different in different tectonic environments, but is broadly consistent between analogous but widely separated tectonic environments. A comparatively shallow conducting region is found beneath the ocean lithosphere. The depth of this region is dependent on lithospheric age. Many of the more shallow conducting regions in both continental and oceanic environments are associated with high heat flow values and seismic low velocity zones. These highly conducting regions may be zones of partial melt.  相似文献   

Some geophysical constraints on the chemical composition of the earth's lower mantle     

Ian Jackson 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1983,62(1):91-103

The physical properties(?, K, K′) of the adiabatically decompressed lower mantle are interpreted in terms of an (Mg,Fe)SiO₃ perovskite + magnesiowüstite mineralogy. The approach employed in this paper involves the removal of the relatively better characterised magnesiowüstite component from the two-phase mixture in order to highlight the physical properties required of the perovskite phase for consistency between the seismological data and any proposed compositional model. It is concluded that a wide tradeoff (emphasized by Davies [1]) between composition, temperature and the physical properties (especially thermal expansion) of the perovskite phase accommodates most recently proposed compositional models including Ringwood's [2] pyrolite and the more silicic models of Burdick and Anderson [3], Anderson [4], Sawamoto [5], Butler and Anderson [6], Liu [7,8] and Watt and Ahrens [9].  相似文献   

Dissolution of the primordial rare gases into the molten Earth's material     

Hiroshi Mizuno  Kiyoshi Nakazawa  Chushiro Hayashi 《Earth and Planetary Science Letters》1980,50(1):202-210

We have shown in a previous paper that, if the primordial solar nebula existed when the Earth was formed, the Earth was once surrounded by a dense and massive primordial atmosphere, whose temperature and pressure were about 4000 K and 900 atm, respectively, at the bottom. We suppose that this hydrogen-rich atmosphere escaped from the Earth after the solar nebula itself disappeared, both phenomena probably being due to the effect of strong solar wind and radiation.Using the results of our previous and new calculations on the structure of the primordial atmosphere, we have investigated the amount of dissolution of the rare gases, which were contained in the primordial atmosphere, into the molten Earth's material.The amount of the dissolved rare gases is found to be strongly dependent on the grain opacity of the atmosphere, i.e., on the amount of fine grains. However, their isotopic ratios and relative abundance are independent of the opacity and approximately equal to those in the primordial solar nebula, that is, to the present solar values. Especially, the dissolved neon is expected to have remained in the present mantle. Therefore, if a considerable amount of neon with nearly the solar isotopic ratio is discovered in present mantle material, this offers direct evidence for the proposition that the proto-Earth was once surrounded by the primordial atmosphere.  相似文献   

Upwelling flow in Earth's mantle and sea-floor spreading     

《Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors》1981,24(4):325-332

Upwelling flows in the Earth's mantle are accompanied by mass, momentum and energy transports from deep to upper layers. Those flows beneath the mid-ocean ridges give rise to sea-floor spreading. Mantle plumes, on the other hand, cause hot spots to be formed on the Earth's surface. Using the basic equations of fluid dynamics, temperature and velocity distributions in two-dimensional upwelling and cylindrical plumes can be obtained by an integral-relation method. Then the mass, momentum and energy transported to the lithosphere by these upwelling flows can readily be calculated. Based on those results we can more thoroughly discuss problems of plate dynamics, such as the driving mechanism of plate motion, the causes of formation of rift valleys over mid-ocean ridges, and the effect of mantle plumes on sea-floor spreading.  相似文献