Snow Model for the F-Layer

Abstract:

Seismic observations of the Earth’s core reveal a complex structure: radial and lateral heterogeneities in seismic anisotropy and attenuation in the solid inner core, but also discrepancies between observed P-wave velocity and homogeneous PREM model in the deep liquid outer core. In this work, we focus on the 200km anomalous layer at the bottom of the outer core that exhibits seismic velocities lower than the PREM model. It has been interpreted as a layer depleted in light elements, whereas the usual model considers that light elements are expelled at the surface of the inner core by freezing of the outer core alloy. Recent models of core formation argued for an early stratified liquid core, and the stratified layers at the top and bottom of the outer core would be a vestige of this primordial stratification. However, freezing of the inner core at the inner core boundary releases light elements that provide buoyancy fluxes that would mix the stratified liquid above with small scale buoyant plumes.
To model the F-layer, we consider that the freezing of the iron alloy and the release of light elements have to occur in the bulk of the layer. Iron snow forms and settles in the layer, buffering the thermal and chemical profile to the liquidus. We show that this dynamics can both sustain and stabilize the stratified layer in the liquid outer core while simultaneously matching the seismic observations. However, the expected layer is stable only for a given set of parameters, in particular when a high thermal diffusivity (>100 W/m/K) is employed.
If freezing of the iron alloy of the outer core occurs in the bulk of the layer, several assumptions for both the outer and inner core has to be discussed: the F-layer acts as a boundary layer for both composition and temperature, and modifies the quantity of light elements expelled into the outer core as well as the composition that freezes to form the inner core.