Structure and Dynamics of the Earth’s Interior 2: Composition and Structure of the Earth's Mantle

The interior of our planet is one of the last 'terra incognita'. Its chemical composition and onion-like structure of solid rocks and rare minerals make it a fascinating object. It is primarily its dynamic that makes Earth such a singular object in the solar system, with perennial, active plate tectonics for several billion years.

While its dynamic is obvious on the surface (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, mid-oceanic rifts), the very nature of the Earth's mantle – beneath the crust and in contact with the core – has not revealed all of its secrets.

Structure and Dynamics of the Earth's Interior 2 recalls the fundamental principles of several key physicochemical properties of the materials which make up the Earth's mantle. This book then describes the latest technological advances used at high pressures and temperatures to reproduce the extreme conditions of the Earth's mantle in the laboratory. It also presents the latest and most significant scientific results.

Sylvie Demouchy is Research Director at the CNRS, France, and joined the Magmas and Volcanoes Laboratory in 2022. She is a geologist and experimentalist specializing in defects in deep Earth minerals.

Nathalie Bolfan-Casanova is Research Director at the CNRS, France, and joined the Magmas and Volcanoes Laboratory in 2003. She is a spectroscopist and experimentalist specializing in the incorporation of water into the deep Earth.