Jenny Wong

Profile

I am a PhD Researcher at the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Fluid Dynamics and member of the Deep Earth Research Group (DERG). My background is in applied mathematics.

• MSc Fluid dynamics
• MMath, BSc Mathematics

I am interested in the fluid dynamics of the Earth's deep interior. My PhD project is focused on explaining the existence of a stably-stratified layer situated at the base of the Earth's outer core, also known as the 'F-layer'. I am developing a slurry theory that describes how light element released from a freezing inner core can pass through the stratified layer. This iron snow regime can also describe the cores of other satellites, such as Ganymede. By studying crystallisation in slurries, we can gain insight into other important planetary events such as the crystallisation of magma oceans.

• Workshop tutor for drop-in maths help with Skills@Library, year 2017/18
• Demonstrated for courses Vector Calculus MATH2365 and Fluid dynamics 1 MATH2620, year 2016/17

A slurry model of the F-layer

Dr Chris Davies, Prof Chris Jones

EPSRC

Seismic observations suggest that a stably-stratified layer, known as the F-layer, 150–300 km thick exists at the bottom of Earth’s liquid outer core. These observations contrast with the density inferred from the Preliminary Reference Earth Model (PREM), which assumes an outer core that is well-mixed and adiabatic throughout. The liquid core is composed primarily of iron alloyed with a light component. A thermal boundary layer produces the opposite effect on the density profile compared with the observations, and single phase, thermochemical models do not provide a sufficient dynamical description of how light element is transported across the F–layer into the overlying liquid outer core. We therefore propose that the layer can be explained by a slurry on the liquidus, whereby solid particles of iron crystallise from the liquid alloy throughout the layer. The slurry model provides a dynamical explanation of how light element can be transported across a stable layer.

• Wong, J., Davies, C. J. & Jones, C. A. (2018). A Boussinesq slurry model of the F-layer at the base of Earth's outer core. Geophysical Journal International, 214(3), 2236-2249. doi:10.1093/gji/ggy245
• Greiciunas, E., Wong, J., Gorbatenko, I., Hall, J., Wilson, M. C. T., Kapur, N., Harlen, O. G., Vadillo, D. & Threlfall-Holmes, P. (2017). Design and operation of a Rayleigh Ohnesorge jetting extensional rheometer (ROJER) to study extensional properties of low viscosity polymer solutions. Journal of Rheology, 61(3), 467-476. doi: 10.1122/1.4979099

Qualifications

• MSc Fluid dynamics
• MMath, BSc Mathematics

Research groups and institutes

• Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics
• Deep Earth