I also read that it may be somewhere between solid and liquid in a “superionic” state. But I don’t really understand what they mean. Is there an animated video of this hypothesis?
In: Planetary Science
The inner core of the Earth is under extreme pressure from gravity pulling together the material. In fact, the pressure at the core is around 3.6 million times the pressure we experience from the atmosphere at sea level.
As the pressure increases, so do the melting and boiling points of materials. It turns out that iron melts at about 7600k or 13000f at that high of a pressure. You can see this in usage when using a pressure cooker or pressure canning, where the increased pressure raises the boiling point of water, allowing the food to get to a higher temperature.
Similarly, reducing the pressure reduces the meting and boiling point. This is why cooking times increase at high elevation: water boils at a lower temperature, slowing cooking. If you went up to 63,000 feet or 19,000 meters, you’d find water boiling off your tongue – at those elevations, the pressure is low enough that water boils below human body temperature*.
* You’d also have to bring oxygen with you, given that you’d be way above the zone where there is enough oxygen to breathe.
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