Scientific Colloquium
November 6, 2009


"Probing the Geodynamo"

The geodynamo is the collection of physical and chemical processes through which fluid motions within the Earth's electrically conducting outer core continuously maintain the geomagnetic field.  This talk surveys what we have learned about the geodynamo over the past decade, focusing on new interpretations of Earth's core seismic structure, new images of the geomagnetic field at the core-mantle boundary, and recent advances using laboratory experiments and numerical models. Special attention is given to the efforts toward understanding the causes and consequences of the present-day rapid decrease in the geomagnetic dipole moment, and their possible connections to the dynamo process that have led to geomagnetic reversals and excursions in the past.


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