T147 Earth's Deep Interior: In Honor of Motohiko Murakami, 2011 MSA Awardee

Tuesday, 11 October 2011
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 102BC

SPIN CROSSOVER SYSTEMS IN THE DEEP MANTLE

Paper number: T147-3
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:30 AM – 8:45 AM

Authors

Abstract

There has been much interest on spin crossovers found experimentally in the most abundant minerals of Earth’s lower mantle ((MgFe)O and (MgFe)(Si,Fe)O3-perovskite) under pressure. Spin crossovers are strongly dependent on thermodynamic conditions and a full understanding of this problem requires its investigation as function of pressure and temperature. There are several controversies, especially in the perovskite systems, and surprises are revealed by electronic structure calculations. The geophysical consequences of these crossovers are yet to be fully understood. I will review progress we have made in understanding spin crossovers and give an overview of this phenomenon and its potential implications for the Earth.

Research in collaboration with K. Umemoto, J. F. Justo, C. R. S. da Silva, M. Cococcioni, S. de Gironcoli, and P. Blaha. Research supported by NSF/ATM-0428774, EAR-0810212, EAR-1047629, and the MRSEC Program of NSF under Awards Number DMR-0212302 and DMR-0819885.