Treatise on Geophysics, Volume 8

Treaties on Geophysics: Core Dynamics, Volume 8, provides a comprehensive review of the current state of understanding of core dynamics. The book begins by analyzing a subject of long-standing and on-going controversy: the gross energetics of the core. It then explains the important elements of dynamo theory; actual fluid motions in the core; the basic physical principles involved in thermochemical convection in the core and the basic equations governing the convection; and turbulence and the small-scale dynamics of the core. This is followed by discussions of the state of knowledge on rotation-induced core flows; the use of first-principles numerical models of self-sustaining fluid dynamos; and the behavior of polarity reversals in numerical dynamo models. The remaining chapters cover the various roles the inner core plays in core dynamics and the geodynamo; experiments that have shaped knowledge about the flows in the core that produce the geodynamo and govern its evolution; and ways the mantle can affect core dynamics, and corresponding ways the core can affect the mantle.

"It is an excellently written textbook intended to provide an overview of dynamic effects that are taking place at the heart of our planet…There are several aspects of this book that distinguish it from other similar textbooks, although the most evident one is probably its capacity of identifying, in most of the chapters, the key science questions particular to each area."—Pure and Applied Geophysics, Volume 170, 2013