New Kind of Metal Theorized To Be In the Earth's Lower Mantle

slew writes "This article talks about a study accepted to Physical Review Letters which theorizes that iron oxide goes through an insulator/metal phase change with high temperature and pressure. Originally it was thought to be a crystalline structure change, but now apparently it is theorized to be a new type of metallic state. This discovery might offer new insight on how the earth's magnetic field operates."

Comments

Re:How to experimentally verify?

[sensei moreh]

Back when I was in grad school, high-end diamond anvil cells were typically achieving pressures on the order of 1 Mbar; so 140 GPa certainly sounds reasonable. Laser heating should enable one to get to 2200 deg C and beyond quite easily. I only got to play with our cell at room temperature.