Equation of State of Liquid Iron under Extreme Conditions

International audienceThe density of liquid iron has been determined up to 116 GPa and 4350 K via static compression experiments following an innovative analysis of diffuse scattering from liquid. The longitudinal sound velocity was also obtained to 45 GPa and 2700 K based on inelastic x-ray scattering measurements. Combining these results with previous shock-wave data, we determine a thermal equation of state for liquid iron. It indicates that the Earth’s outer core exhibits 7.5–7.6% density deficit, 3.7–4.4% velocity excess, and an almost identical adiabatic bulk modulus, with respect to liquid iron