| | Melting Curves of Lower Mantle Phases |
 | | As silicate perovskite is widely believed to be the dominant phase of the Earth's lower mantle, the perovskite melting curve represents an upper bound to the temperature of this region, and places important constraints on the thermodynamic and rheological properties of the lower mantle. |
 | | Extrapolation to the CMB pressure yields a melting temperature between 7000 and 8500 K. A number of discussions of the relative merits of these experiments have been reported [ Heinz et al., 1991; Heinz et al., 1994; Boehler and Zerr, 1994]. |
 | | Extrapolation of recently measured melting curves (to 32 GPa) of MgO and (Mg,Fe)O indicates these materials melt at 3500-5000 K at lower mantle pressures [ Zerr and Boehler, 1994], but molecular dynamics calculations of MgO melting temperatures are higher by several thousand Kelvin [ Cohen and Gong, 1994]. |
| www.agu.org /revgeophys/duffy01/node4.html (267 words) |