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Radioactivity in Earth’s Core

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Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Definition

Lithophile. Affinity for silicates

Chalcophile. Affinity for sulfur

Siderophile. Affinity for metals

BSE. Bulk Silicate Earth refers to primitive silicate material in the Earth from which the core is separated. Corresponds to the total mantle + crust system of silicates now.

P, T. Pressure, temperature

TW. Terawatt. 1 TW = 1012 W

D K . Concentration of K in Fe-alloy ⁄ Concentration of K in silicate melt.

GPa. GigaPascal =109 Pascals (1 GigaPascal is equivalent to 10 kilobars of pressure)

Geoneutrinos. Electron antineutrinos produced inside the Earth due to β– decay of naturally occurring radioactive elements in the Earth.

Oxygen fugacity, fO 2. A measure of the oxidation state of a system irrespective of the presence or absence of a gas phase containing free oxygen.

IW buffer. Iron–Wustite buffer. A synthetic redox mineral reference buffer representing the oxygen fugacity of a system where Femetal is in equilibrium with FeO (wustite), according to the reaction Femetal + ½O2...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, 313 A Northrop Hall 1, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-1126, USA

    V. RamaMurthy

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  1. V. RamaMurthy
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Correspondence to V. RamaMurthy .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Geophysical Research Institute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hyderabad, India

    Harsh K. Gupta

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RamaMurthy, V. (2011). Radioactivity in Earth’s Core. In: Gupta, H.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8702-7_75

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