Just for clarification: the radius of the Earth is 6,371 kilometers, or about 4 thousand miles. Estimated pressure and temperature conditions at the center of the core are 360 gigapascals and over 6000 degrees C. For comparison, pressure at the bottom of Mariana Trench (11 kilometers depth) is “only” 0.11 GPa.
The extreme conditions research at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology is supported by research grants from the National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences (NSF EAR), COnsortium for Materials Properties Research in Earth Science (COMPRES), Carnegie-Department of Energy Alliance Center (CDAC) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Advanced Photon Source (APS), the synchrotron in Chicago is supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The instruments at APS that we use for our research are operated by GeoSoilEnviro CARS at the University of Chicago, HPCAT at Carnegie Institution for Science, and COMPRES.
