The atomic behavior of iron and light elements in Earth’s inner core. (IMAGE)
Caption
Iron atoms form a rigid hexagonal close-packed (hcp) structure, with a subset of these atoms exhibiting collective motion along the [100] and [010] directions. Within this hcp iron lattice, interstitial light elements diffuse freely in a liquid-like manner, while substitutional light elements remain confined to their respective substitutional lattice sites. Consequently, the Earth’s inner core exists in a hybrid state of solid and liquid-like behavior.
Credit
Huang et al
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