This dataset contains VASP runs performed on several supercomputing services (Monsoon and ARCHER, and their successors Monsoon2 and ARCHER2) to calculate the chemical potentials of potassium in liquid iron mixtures and in liquid and solid silicate mixtures, and their distribution in the Earth’s core using density functional theory. Data are available for the chemical potentials of potassium and various other elements in iron and silicate liquid mixtures. These data were used to calculate chemical equilibrium between liquid iron alloys and Earth’s mantle materials. The present grant also supported work regarding the Si composition and thermal history of Earth’s liquid core. Results from VASP runs are also included in the uploaded dataset.

The two-phase modeling of water between liquid iron and silicate melt at 50 and 135 gigapascals (corresponding to 3500 and 4200 kelvin) was performed by using ab initio molecular dynamics implemented in the Vienna Ab Initio Simulation Package.

This collection includes the elastic calculations of the hcp-Fe-Si-S-C alloy system. NERC grant NE/M015181/1 - Pre melting in iron and iron alloys: ab initio calculations and high P-T experiments on iron, iron alloys and other materials

In this urgency proposal we will deploy seismometers for 1 year to record aftershocks from sequence of 4 major earthquakes with magnitudes between 7.1-7.6. These recordings and other recordings of earthquakes from around the globe will allow us to delineate with high accuracy the plate interfaces of the new and old subducting slabs and image the slab structures at depth. The structure of the old and new subduction zones will illuminate the processes occurring at depth which are shifting the force balance in the region to reverse the sense of subduction. The proposed experiment will be enhanced by concurrent studies scheduled to be deployed in Fall of 2014, which includes a multimillion pound ocean bottom seismic deployment by colleagues in Japan. The combined array will allow us to image the Pacific plate which is stalling the subduction, allowing us to investigate what conditions are necessary for a plate to halt the descent of the slab into the mantle. Thus we will be able to understand how subduction stops and starts. Data available online at the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) Data Management Centre (DMC).