EAR-PF: Thermochemical Convection Dynamics in Earth's Core

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Dr. Michael A. Calkins has been awarded an NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a research and education plan at the University of Colorado, Boulder. This investigation will employ computationally efficient two-dimensional numerical simulations to improve our understanding of thermochemical convection dynamics in the Earth's liquid outer core. The goal of this work is to determine how the dynamics of the core change when both thermal and chemical buoyancy are present, the sensitivity of the resulting flow to the value of the thermal and chemical diffusivities, and how the dynamics have changed over time in response to the slow cooling of the Earth. The results will be fundamental for helping to understand the structure of the Earth's magnetic field and the dynamo process by which it is maintained. It is widely believed that the Earth's magnetic field is generated by fluid motion in the molten iron outer core. However, this "dynamo" process remains one of the least understood phenomena in the Earth sciences. This project will use computer simulations to investigate the fluid motions within the core. The research will be crucial for improving our understanding of the dynamo mechanism and the evolution of the core. Furthermore, the results will be broadly applicable to other areas of the Earth sciences where similar fluid motions occur, such as the Earth's mantle, oceans, and magma chambers. Dr. Calkins will engage a diverse body of undergraduate and graduate students in the mathematical and physical sciences by teaching a semester-long course on modeling fluid motion in the Earth sciences. The goal of the course is for each student to design and run a computational fluid dynamics code on multi-processor machines. Students will learn the fundamental skills required to understand and model the fluid flow phenomena that are ubiquitous in the Earth sciences.