The phase diagram of molybdenum at high pressures and
temperatures is the subject of considerable on-going contro-
versy. Early sound velocity measurements [2] under shock
loading identified two discontinuities—at 210GPa(∼4100K)
andat390GPa(∼10000K)thatwereinterpretedassolid-solid
and solid-liquid transitions, respectively. In contrast, static
diamond-anvil cell (DAC) experiments [1,3] on Mo up to
119 GPa reported a very shallow melting slope, and compari-
sonwithshockdatawasusedtoinferthatthereported210-GPa
discontinuity was associated with melting whereas the higher-
pressure discontinuity could be connected to a structural
change in the liquid [22]. The discrepancy between the static
and the shock data is considerable with differences in melting
temperature of thousands of Kelvin at megabar pressures.