Constraining Earth’s core composition from inner core nucleation

Abstract

Abstract The composition of Earth’s core is a fundamental property of the Earth’s deep interior, defining its present structure and long term thermal and magnetic evolution. However, the composition of the core is not well understood, with several combinations of light elements being able to satisfy the traditional constraints from cosmochemistry, core formation and seismology. The classic view of inner core formation does not include the necessity for liquids to be supercooled to below their melting point before freezing. Attempts to calculate the magnitude of this supercooling have found that several binary core compositions are incompatible with inner core nucleation. Here we show, through molecular dynamics simulations, that nucleation from an Fe 1− x C x =0.1-0.15 composition is compatible with a range of geophysical constraints. Whilst not a complete description of core chemistry, our results demonstrate that inner core nucleation places a strong constraint on the composition of Earth’s core that may allow discrimination between previously identified potential compositions.