Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 14, 2026

Simulation of the Planetary Interior Differentiation Processes in the Laboratory
06:04

Simulation of the Planetary Interior Differentiation Processes in the Laboratory

Published on: November 15, 2013

Melting of iron at the physical conditions of the Earth's core

Jeffrey H Nguyen1, Neil C Holmes

  • 1Physics and Advanced Technologies, H-Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551, USA. nguyen29@llnl.gov

Nature
|January 23, 2004
PubMed

More Related Videos

Metal-silicate Partitioning at High Pressure and Temperature: Experimental Methods and a Protocol to Suppress Highly Siderophile Element Inclusions11:50

Metal-silicate Partitioning at High Pressure and Temperature: Experimental Methods and a Protocol to Suppress Highly Siderophile Element Inclusions

Published on: June 13, 2015

Synthesis of 68Ga Core-doped Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Dual Positron Emission Tomography /(T1)Magnetic Resonance Imaging07:26

Synthesis of 68Ga Core-doped Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Dual Positron Emission Tomography /(T1)Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Published on: November 20, 2018

Related Concept Videos

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing02:39

Phase Transitions: Melting and Freezing

Heating a crystalline solid increases the average energy of its atoms, molecules, or ions, and the solid gets hotter. At some point, the added energy becomes large enough to partially overcome the forces holding the molecules or ions of the solid in their fixed positions, and the solid begins the process of transitioning to the liquid state or melting. At this point, the temperature of the solid stops rising, despite the continual input of heat, and it remains constant until all of the solid is...
Nuclear Fission02:50

Nuclear Fission

Many heavier elements with smaller binding energies per nucleon can decompose into more stable elements that have intermediate mass numbers and larger binding energies per nucleon—that is, mass numbers and binding energies per nucleon that are closer to the “peak” of the binding energy graph near 56. Sometimes neutrons are also produced. This decomposition of a large nucleus into smaller pieces is called fission. The breaking is rather random with the formation of a large number of different...
Nuclear Fusion02:45

Nuclear Fusion

The process of converting very light nuclei into heavier nuclei is also accompanied by the conversion of mass into large amounts of energy, a process called fusion. The principal source of energy in the sun is a net fusion reaction in which four hydrogen nuclei fuse and ultimately produce one helium nucleus and two positrons.
A helium nucleus has a mass that is 0.7% less than that of four hydrogen nuclei; this lost mass is converted into energy during the fusion. This reaction produces about...
Nuclear Transmutation03:20

Nuclear Transmutation

Nuclear transmutation is the conversion of one nuclide into another. It can occur by the radioactive decay of a nucleus, or the reaction of a nucleus with another particle. The first manmade nucleus was produced in Ernest Rutherford’s laboratory in 1919 by a transmutation reaction, the bombardment of one type of nuclei with other nuclei or with neutrons. Rutherford bombarded nitrogen-14 atoms with high-speed α particles from a natural radioactive isotope of radium and observed protons being...
Ferromagnetism01:31

Ferromagnetism

Materials like iron, nickel, and cobalt consist of magnetic domains, within which the magnetic dipoles are arranged parallel to each other. The magnetic dipoles are rigidly aligned in the same direction within a domain by quantum mechanical coupling among the atoms. This coupling is so strong that even thermal agitation at room temperature cannot break it. The result is that each domain has a net dipole moment. However, some materials have weaker coupling, and are ferromagnetic at lower...
Microbes and Other Elemental Cycles01:24

Microbes and Other Elemental Cycles

Microbial activity plays a pivotal role in the biogeochemical cycling of iron and manganese, especially at the redox gradients characteristic of stratified aquatic environments. These cycles are driven by microbial transformations between oxidized and reduced forms of the metals, allowing organisms to exploit them for metabolic energy and structural purposes.Iron Cycling Across Redox GradientsIn neutral, oxygen-rich surface waters, iron is predominantly found in its oxidized, insoluble ferric...