Energetics of core formation - A correction.

Abstract

An error has recently been discovered in the calculation of the temperature rise conducted by Birch (1965) in connection with a determination of the release of gravitational energy accompanying a rapid formation of the earth's core from an initially undifferentiated state. A revised calculation of the energetic relations involved in the core formation is, therefore, presented. The radii of the initial undifferentiated cold earth and of the fictitious undifferentiated warm earth are both found to be slightly smaller than that of the present differentiated warm earth.