Fig. 2: Effects of the Mg content on the density (ρ) and compressional wave velocity (VP) of liquid Fe and Fe-Mg alloys.

Densities and compressional wave velocities are plotted at (a) the core-mantle boundary (CMB) and (b) the inner-outer core boundary (ICB) conditions. The blue and red lines (or symbols) represent properties calculated at ICB temperatures (TICB) of 5400 K and 6000 K, respectively. The temperatures at the CMB were calculated using the adiabatic temperature gradient and the ICB temperatures. The circles and triangles represent the results obtained from the original pressures in FPMD simulations and pressures with corrections for the GGA approximation. The magenta squares, yellow hexagons, and cyan diamonds represent previous results from FPMD simulations (TICB = 6000 K)67, shock wave experiments (TICB = 5400 K)40, and inelastic x-ray scattering measurements (TICB = 5400 K)68, respectively. The horizontal green dash-dot lines represent the seismically observed density and \({V}_{P}\) of the outer core from the preliminary reference Earth model (PREM). Error bars in \({V}_{P}\) represent uncertainties propagated from one standard errors in fitting parameters of the equation of state.