[IRIS] Union Session at Fall 2006 AGU meeting on Deep Mantle

[IRIS]

Please consider submitting abstracts to the following Union Session
for the 2006 Fall AGU Meeting

U02 : New Views of the Core-Mantle Boundary Region

The core-mantle boundary region is the least understood region in the
Earth's interior, but our understanding of this region has rapidly
been evolving in the past years since the improved resolution of
seismic studies and the discovery of the post-perovskite phase
transition. In addition to a considerable degree of
chemical heterogeneities (including the presence of partial melt)
already expected to this region, the post-perovskite phase transition
provides an additional way of interpreting relevant seismological  
observations.
The dynamics of the lowermost mantle is also likely to be influenced by
this exothermic phase transition and chemical heterogeneities as well
as possible change in transport properties due to electronic spin
transition of iron. Furthermore, this boundary region plays an
essential role in the coupled core-mantle thermal evolution, which
likely controls the rate of core cooling and the degree of basal
heating for mantle convection. In this special session, we hope to
bring together (1) observational studies on the seismic structure of
the core-mantle boundary region, (2) experimental and theoretical  
studies on the
material properties of the lower(most) mantle, and (3) theoretical,
numerical and experimental studies exploring the dynamics of this
boundary region as well as the thermal evolution of the coupled
core-mantle system.


Organizers:  Kei Hirose, Allen McNamara, Jun Korenaga, Lianxing Wen