Project Grant 2200322

This two-year, $389,244 National Science Foundation project grant funds the development of numerical modeling to investigate thermo-chemical convection in Earth's core and implications for geomagnetic field evolution. Funded under the NSF Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050), the modeling aims to better understand how Earth's magnetic field has been maintained over billions of years through fluid motion in its liquid outer core. The Carnegie Institution for Science will receive funding to support a postdoctoral researcher developing an existing dynamo code to include multiple scalar buoyancy fields with individual boundary conditions and diffusivities. They will then conduct numerical experiments systematically investigating the physics of two interacting and boundary-coupled buoyancy fields undergoing rotating convection and dynamo action. This thermo-chemical boundary coupling modeling could provide new insights into how Earth has cooled over time and whether its ancient surface environment was historically protected by a magnetic shield allowing life to flourish. Results may also shed light on how the geomagnetic field was influenced by the growth of Earth's solid inner core.