The Dynamic Structure of the Deep Earth: An Interdisciplinary Approach

The interior of the Earth is largely inaccessible to direct observation; the deepest drill holes are only .1% of the Earth's radius. One might call it the undiscovered country. The mysteries of the interior have spanned a great deal of scientific and non‐scientific literature. Most of what we know about the interior comes from seismological observations, our most informative probe of the deep Earth. Seismology reveals the variations of seismic velocities both laterally and at depth. Converting that information into knowledge about the structure, composition, and dynamical state of the Earth's interior requires other disciplines, high‐pressure mineral physics, and geodynamics in the broadest sense. Without mineral physics, it would be impossible to properly translate the seismic information into knowledge of composition and dynamics.