Mantle heterogeneity influenced Earth’s ancient magnetic field

Heat flowing from the core to the mantle drives the geodynamo that produces Earth’s global magnetic field. Palaeomagnetic measurements record the behaviour of this field through time and have the potential to inform us about deep Earth structures and dynamics on either side of the core–mantle boundary. In practise, insights have proved difficult to obtain because of the limited spatiotemporal resolution of palaeomagnetic records and uncertainties in how to interpret them. Here we use palaeomagnetic datasets and models alongside numerical simulations of the geodynamo to show that certain observed characteristics of ancient magnetic field behaviour are uniquely or preferentially reproduced in the presence of strong lateral variability in core–mantle heat flux. Our findings suggest that strong contrasts in the spatial pattern of the temperature gradients and/or thermal conductivity of the lowermost mantle that are linked, today, to seismologically observed structures, have influenced the geodynamo for at least the last few hundred million years. The identified palaeomagnetic signatures provide a new means to constrain the properties and time evolution of the core–mantle boundary. Furthermore, our insights into how thermal heterogeneity at the base of the mantle can break the axial symmetry of the time-averaged magnetic field may help resolve longstanding palaeogeographic controversies.