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GD4.1/EMRP4.17/GMPV7.1/SM4.09

Earth's core structure, dynamics and evolution: observations, models, experiments (co-organized)
Convener: Sébastien Merkel  | Co-Conveners: Phil Livermore , Andy Biggin 
PICO
 / Mon, 09 Apr, 13:30–15:00

Our understanding of Earth's inner and outer core is progressing at a rapid pace thanks to cross-fertilization between a number of observational, theoretical and experimental disciplines. Improved seismic observations continue to provide better images of the core and prompt refinements in structural and geodynamic models. New dynamic and thermodynamic models integrate the recent first-principle constraints on core conductivity, exploring the consequences of stratification at the top and bottom of the outer core and their possible links with boundary control of the geodynamo. The tight heat budget of the core, together with the improving density of paleomagnetic observations, promotes exploration of new dynamo mechanisms that may have operated at earlier times in Earth’s geological history. With the launch of the SWARM mission, geomagnetism is also in a position to provide strong constraints on the ever expanding complexity of our view of Earth's core, and magneto-hydrodynamic experiments are a unique tool to understand the geomagnetic signatures of the short timescale core dynamics retrieved through more than a decade of continuous satellite measurements.

This session welcomes contributions from all disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary efforts, on attempts to proceed towards an integrated, self-consistent picture of core structure, dynamics and history, and to understand its overwhelming complexity.