{"id":4001,"date":"2023-12-07T21:02:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T02:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/?p=4001"},"modified":"2024-01-16T21:34:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T02:34:16","slug":"earth-science-and-peanut-butter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/2023\/earth-science-and-peanut-butter\/","title":{"rendered":"Earth Science&#8230; And Peanut Butter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4002\" style=\"width: 457px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4002\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-4002 img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2023\/12\/07210042\/P7_GettyImages-1199315488.jpg\" alt=\"Illustration of earth crusts\" width=\"447\" height=\"296\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4002\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Scientists have long understood that solid rock\u2014400 miles below Earth\u2019s surface and subject to intensely high temperatures and lower-mantle pressures\u2014can deform. That allows it to then ooze like chunky peanut butter with its lubricating oil and hard, unchanging nuts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But an international team of researchers, including <\/span><b>James Van Orman<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, PhD, professor of geochemistry and mineral physics in the College of Arts and Sciences, has published findings in the journal Nature that upend previous understandings.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They posit that scientists may have confused which of the two key minerals in Earth\u2019s mantle is the oil and which is the nut. Understanding what makes the mantle ooze and flow is especially important, given that this flow of rock produces most of Earth\u2019s volcanoes and earthquakes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Van Orman and colleagues from Universit\u00e9 de Lille in France and the California Institute of Technology used a modeling system to better understand how the lower mantle\u2019s two minerals\u2014bridgmanite and periclase\u2014deform over time. Scientists had believed periclase was like the oil and could make the mantle softer or harder depending on how it was distributed. But instead, Van Orman said, periclase is like the nuts. No matter how you distribute it, it doesn\u2019t really change the \u201cviscosity,\u201d or consistency of the mantle itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cUnderstanding the viscosity of the lower mantle at such a granular level means we are in a better position to predict how Earth\u2019s mantle convects,\u201d or transfers its internal heat, Van Orman said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have long understood that solid rock\u2014400 miles below Earth\u2019s surface and subject to intensely high temperatures and lower-mantle pressures\u2014can deform. That allows it to then ooze like chunky peanut butter with its lubricating oil and hard, unchanging nuts.\u00a0 <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/2023\/earth-science-and-peanut-butter\/\">&#8230;Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":4002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artscimedia.case.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2023\/12\/07210042\/P7_GettyImages-1199315488.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4001"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4212,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4001\/revisions\/4212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsci.case.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}