Researchers from Ehime University have discovered that grain boundaries in planetary interiors, such as Earth’s mantle, can weaken under extreme pressures. Using quantum mechanical simulations, they found that the behavior of grain boundaries in ferropericlase, a major mantle mineral, changes with depth, causing mechanical weakening. This weakening, contrary to expectations, is due to structural transformations induced by pressure. These findings are crucial for understanding mantle convection and plate tectonics in Earth-like planets and could impact our knowledge of super-Earth exoplanets.
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