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Stratified by a sunken impactor

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There is potential evidence for a stratified layer at the top of the Earth's core, but its origin is not well understood. Laboratory experiments suggest that the stratified layer could be a sunken remnant of the giant impact that formed the Moon.

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Figure 1: Formation of a stratified layer at the top of the Earth's core following the Moon-forming impact.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Miki Nakajima is in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution for Science, 5241 Broad Branch Road NW, Washington DC 20015, USA,

    Miki Nakajima

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  1. Miki Nakajima
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Correspondence to Miki Nakajima.

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Nakajima, M. Stratified by a sunken impactor. Nature Geosci 9, 734–735 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2815

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