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Science 2 January 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5347, pp. 72 - 74
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5347.72
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Reports

Magnetic Properties of Hexagonal Closed-Packed Iron Deduced from Direct Observations in a Diamond Anvil Cell

Stuart Gilder, * Jonathan Glen dagger

The attraction of hexagonal closed packed (hcp) iron to a magnet at 16.9 gigapascals and 261 degrees centigrade suggests that hcp iron is either paramagnetic or ferromagnetic with susceptibilities from 0.15 to 0.001 and magnetizations from 1800 to 15 amperes per meter. If dominant in Earth's inner core, paramagnetic hcp iron could stabilize the geodynamo.

S. Gilder, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Laboratoire de Paléomagnétisme, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France. E-mail: gilder{at}ipgp.jussieu.fr
J. Glen, Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA. E-mail: jglen{at}bgc.org
*   Also at Institute of Tectonics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.

dagger    Also at Earth Sciences Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)