Abstract
FROM seismic data, Jeffreys1 has inferred the presence of a discontinuity in the Earth's mantle at a depth of 400–500 km. Bullen2 has found that between 400 km. and 900 km., a rapid increase in density occurs. It was suggested by Bernal3, in conjunction with Jeffreys, that these findings could be explained by the assumption of a pressure inversion in the olivine of the mantle. Bernal suggested that, at high pressures, magnesium silicate might be inverted from an olivine to a denser spinel structure.
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References
Jeffreys, H., “The Earth”, 3rd edit. (Camb. Univ. Press, 1952).
Bullen, K. E., Mon. Not. Roy. Astro. Soc., Geophys. Supp., 3, 395 (1936).
Bernal, J. D., Observatory, 59, 268 (1936).
Tempkin, M., Acta Physicochim. U.R.S.S., 20, 411 (1945).
Bullen, K. E., “Introduction to the Theory of Seismology”, Chapter 13 (Camb. Univ. Press, 1947).
Birch, F., J. Geophys. Res., 57, 227 (1952).
Ringwood, A. E., Ph.D. thesis, University of Melbourne (1956).
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RINGWOOD, A. The Olivine–Spinel Transition in the Earth's Mantle. Nature 178, 1303–1304 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/1781303a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1781303a0
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