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Earth's Inner Core Could Be Full Of Extreme Hydrogen Unlike Anything on The Surface
Yahoo • • health
Key Points:
- Researchers have identified superionic hydrogen—a form of hydrogen that flows like a liquid and conducts electricity—as potentially abundant in Earth's core, a region inaccessible to direct human exploration.
- The study modeled two types of superionic iron-hydrogen alloys in the core: hexagonal close-packed (HCP) and body-centered cubic (BCC) structures, finding that the HCP phase is more thermodynamically stable under core conditions.
- At extremely high temperatures and hydrogen concentrations, the BCC phase might become more stable, but such conditions likely cause melting, meaning the HCP phase predominantly exists in the inner core.
- A radial gradient of hydrogen concentration exists in the inner core, with hydrogen decreasing toward the center, driving continuous hydrogen redistribution that may contribute to the geodynamo by influencing chemical buoyancy.
- The study concludes that temperature primarily controls hydrogen partitioning in the core, and this thermodynamic mechanism may also affect the distribution of other light elements, impacting Earth's core composition and evolution.
