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An estimate of absolute shear-wave speed in the Earth’s inner core

Author

Listed:
  • Thuany Costa de Lima

    (The Australian National University)

  • Thanh-Son Phạm

    (The Australian National University)

  • Xiaolong Ma

    (The Australian National University)

  • Hrvoje Tkalčić

    (The Australian National University)

Abstract

Observations of seismic body waves that traverse the Earth’s inner core (IC) as shear (J) waves are critical for understanding the IC shear properties, advancing our knowledge of the Earth’s internal structure and evolution. Here, we present several seismological observations of J phases detected in the earthquake late-coda correlation wavefield at periods of 15–50 s, notably via the correlation feature I-J, found to be independent of the Earth reference velocity model. Because I-J is unaffected by compressional wave speeds of the Earth’s inner core, outer core, and mantle, it represents an autonomous class of seismological measurements to benchmark the inner core properties. We estimate the absolute shear-wave speed in the IC to be 3.39 ± 0.02 km/s near the top and 3.54 ± 0.02 km/s in the center, lower than recently reported values. This is a 3.4 ± 0.5% reduction from the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM), suggesting a less rigid IC than previously estimated from the normal mode data. Such a low shear-wave speed requires re-evaluating IC composition, including the abundance of light elements, the atomic properties and stable crystallographic phase of iron, and the IC solidification process.

Suggested Citation

  • Thuany Costa de Lima & Thanh-Son Phạm & Xiaolong Ma & Hrvoje Tkalčić, 2023. "An estimate of absolute shear-wave speed in the Earth’s inner core," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-40307-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-40307-9
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yu He & Shichuan Sun & Duck Young Kim & Bo Gyu Jang & Heping Li & Ho-kwang Mao, 2022. "Superionic iron alloys and their seismic velocities in Earth’s inner core," Nature, Nature, vol. 602(7896), pages 258-262, February.
    2. Anatoly B. Belonoshko & Rajeev Ahuja & Börje Johansson, 2003. "Stability of the body-centred-cubic phase of iron in the Earth's inner core," Nature, Nature, vol. 424(6952), pages 1032-1034, August.
    3. James Wookey & George Helffrich, 2008. "Inner-core shear-wave anisotropy and texture from an observation of PKJKP waves," Nature, Nature, vol. 454(7206), pages 873-876, August.
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