Scientists recreate extreme conditions deep in Earth's interior
Thursday, September 23, 2010 - 13:28
in Earth & Climate
Scientists have wondered for some time why certain seismic waves travel more quickly through the core-mantle boundary, a thin layer of the Earth's interior that lies between about 1675 and 1800 miles below the surface. Now a new study by Yale University and the University of California, Berkeley sheds light on the mystery by showing how this region behaves under the extreme conditions found so deep in the Earth. The findings, which appear in the Sept. 24 issue of the journal Science, have important implications for understanding how the Earth's internal heating and cooling processes work.