This lecture begins with the end of the presentation on recent work on the seed in seismology, in particular, a discussion of seismic observations on anisotropy and the possibility of interpreting them in a different way: by the presence of velocity anomalies in the outer core (in the cylinder tangent to the seed) and the description of laboratory experiments on core dynamics that could support such an interpretation.
We then turn to the structure of the liquid core, as currently known from seismology, and make the transition to core mineralogy. We begin by presenting the experimental and theoretical methods used to constrain the mineralogy and physical properties at core pressures and temperatures: shockwave experiments, the first of which led to an estimate of the melting temperature of iron at ICB pressure.
