Laboratory‐based electrical conductivity in the Earth's mantle

Abstract

Recent laboratory measurements of electrical conductivity of mantle minerals are used in forward calculations for mantle conditions of temperature and pressure. The electrical conductivity of the Earth's mantle is influenced by many factors, which include temperature, pressure, the coexistence of multiple mineral phases, and oxygen fugacity. In order to treat these factors and to estimate the resulting uncertainties, we have used a variety of spatial averaging schemes for mixtures of the mantle minerals and have incorporated effects of oxygen fugacity. In addition, to better calculate lower mantle conductivities, we report new measurements for electrical conductivity of magnesiowüstite (Mg 0.89 Fe 0.11 )O. Because the effective medium theory averages lie between the Hashin‐Shtrikman bounds for the whole mantle, a laboratory‐based conductivity‐depth profile was constructed using this averaging scheme. Comparison of apparent resistivities calculated from the laboratory‐based conductivity profile with those from field geophysical models shows that the two approaches agree well.