Researchers from the University of Murcia participate in a landmark international study on the Earth's core published in Nature Communications

The Earth's Core Challenge

Iron is one of the main components of the core of our planet and other rocky bodies.. However, directly measuring its mechanical properties at millions of atmospheres of pressure and thousands of degrees represents a huge experimental challenge.. To solve this enigma, an international research team managed to measure for the first time the dynamic strength of iron under conditions comparable to those of the Earth's inner core..

Online and Experimental Innovation

The landmark study successfully combined cutting-edge experiments with advanced computer simulations to observe the material's behavior at the atomic scale..

• Extreme experiments: They were carried out in the National Ignition Facility (NIF) of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA), using one of the world's most powerful laser systems and ultrafast X-ray diagnostics10th to track iron deformation.

• Computer simulations: The experimental data were interpreted using Molecular Dynamics. It is worth noting that the online simulations carried out in the Universidad de Mendoza They anticipated the experiments, surprisingly predicting that the strength of iron depends on its initial crystalline orientation and the changes induced by compression..

Findings and Scientific Relevance

The study revealed unexpected results regarding the hardness of iron.. It was discovered that the metal undergoes a phase transition (a rearrangement of its atoms) under pressure, which alters its microstructure and affects its final mechanical behavior..

These discoveries are fundamental to:

• Understanding the deep dynamics and evolution of the Earth's interior.

• Analyze the propagation of seismic waves and the phenomenon of seismic anisotropy.

• Study the structure of exoplanets that contain a similar core.

Institutional and Ibero-American Pride

The computational component of this scientific achievement benefited from the outstanding participation of the SIMAF group from the School of Engineering of the Universidad de Mendoza, made up of Orlando Deluigi (CONICET postdoctoral researcher) and Eduardo Bringa (CONICET senior researcher). Carlos Ruestes, a member of SIMAF until 2019 and current researcher at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, also participated..

This collaboration with elite institutions such as Stanford University, UC San Diego, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and LLNL, directly reinforces the contribution of Ibero-American science to international research on materials in extreme conditions.

Contact and Publication: The full study and its results are now available on the website of Nature Communications.. For details or inquiries about the research, you can contact Eduardo Bringa at the following email address: ebringa@yahoo.com.