The Pressures of Being Iron Oxide

Posted in The World Of Metal on 23rd December 2011

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Scientists continue to find out more of what lies 6,000km beneath the surface of the Earth through research and experimentation in laboratories across the world. The Earth's mantle is made up of a solid mixture of magnesium and iron oxide. The electronic link from between the core and mantle is formulate by iron oxide, and affects the magnetic field that we see on the Earth's surface.

Iron oxide is one of the main materials found at the centre of the earth, and research has indicated a change to iron oxide due to extreme pressures of 690,000 times sea level and temperatures of 1,650ºC. This has dramatically changed the way in which the metal conducts electricity, with no change to its structure.

Scientists are unsure how iron oxide can undergo such extremities yet implicate the Earth's interior magnetic field. Most often when these transitions take place, a change in structure is expected. For example, the atoms can arrange in a crystal pattern or as subatomic particles surrounding atomic nuclei.

Iron oxide was subjected to pressures up to 1.4 million times the atmospheric sea level at the Institute for Science, and to temperatures of 2,200ºC. The team found that this changed the materials electrical properties but not its structural shape, allowing it to be both a conductor and insulator. The results indicate a new type of metallisation.

A co-author of the study, Ronald Cohen, explained that the atoms in iron oxide crystals have the same structure as table salt, which is also a good insulator but cannot conduct electricity. However their new findings show that iron oxide metallises with no structural change and combined temperature and pressure are required.

Another study took iron-nickel alloy, thought to make up the Earth's core, and subjected the material to 3 million times the atmospheric pressure and 4,500ºC, resulting in a rapid growth in crystals. Scientists are simply fascinated by iron-nickel and its magnetic properties at the centre of the Earth, which are vital to life on the surface. It is a natural navigation tool used by migrating animals and acts as a barrier between the Earth and the dangers of radiation in solar wind.

Attempts to reach the Earth's core have been dampened, and have proven impossible with the ever-changing temperatures and pressures. So far, only 12km has been penetrated of the 6,000km layer, which amounts to 0.2% of the way to the centre of the Earth.

The Earth's magnetic field has weakened over the past 180 years, and scientists are desperately trying to find out why.

Source: BBC NEWS

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