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Seismological evidence for a localized mushy zone at the Earth’s inner core boundary

Overview of attention for article published in Nature Communications, August 2017
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (91st percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (55th percentile)

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Title
Seismological evidence for a localized mushy zone at the Earth’s inner core boundary
Published in
Nature Communications, August 2017
DOI 10.1038/s41467-017-00229-9
Pubmed ID
Authors

Dongdong Tian, Lianxing Wen

Abstract

Although existence of a mushy zone in the Earth's inner core has been hypothesized several decades ago, no seismic evidence has ever been reported. Based on waveform modeling of seismic compressional waves that are reflected off the Earth's inner core boundary, here we present seismic evidence for a localized 4-8 km thick zone across the inner core boundary beneath southwest Okhotsk Sea with seismic properties intermediate between those of the inner and outer core and of a mushy zone. Such a localized mushy zone is found to be surrounded by a sharp inner core boundary nearby. These seismic results suggest that, in the current thermo-compositional state of the Earth's core, the outer core composition is close to eutectic in most regions resulting in a sharp inner core boundary, but deviation from the eutectic composition exists in some localized regions resulting in a mushy zone with a thickness of 4-8 km.The existence of a mushy zone in the Earth's inner core has been suggested, but has remained unproven. Here, the authors have discovered a 4-8 km thick mushy zone at the inner core boundary beneath the Okhotsk Sea, indicating that there may be more localized mushy zones at the inner core boundary.

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X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 39 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 51 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 51 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 9 18%
Researcher 7 14%
Student > Master 5 10%
Student > Bachelor 5 10%
Other 2 4%
Other 3 6%
Unknown 20 39%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Earth and Planetary Sciences 23 45%
Physics and Astronomy 3 6%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 2 4%
Chemical Engineering 1 2%
Business, Management and Accounting 1 2%
Other 1 2%
Unknown 20 39%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 28. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 08 August 2017.
All research outputs
#1,391,773
of 25,386,051 outputs
Outputs from Nature Communications
#20,650
of 56,568 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#26,954
of 321,599 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Communications
#363
of 822 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,386,051 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 56,568 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 55.7. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 63% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 321,599 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 822 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.