Understanding planetary structure and evolution requires a detailed knowledge of the properties of geological materials under the conditions of deep planetary interiors. Experiments under the extreme pressure-temperature conditions of the deep mantle are challenging, and many fundamental properties remain poorly constrained or are inferred only through uncertain extrapolations from lower pressu...

We report new high-precision laser fluorination three-isotope oxygen data for lunar materials. Terrestrial silicates with a range of δO values (−0.5 to 22.9‰) were analyzed to independently determine the slope of the terrestrial fractionation line (TFL; λ=0.5259±0.0008; 95% confidence level). This new TFL determination allows direct comparison of lunar oxygen isotope systematics with those of E...

This research has been motivated by geophysics and materials physics. The objective of this research has been to advance materials theory and computations for high pressure and high temperature applications to the point that it can make a difference in our understanding of the Earth. Understanding of the mineralogy, composition, and thermal structure of the Earth evolves by close interaction of...

Xenon, which is quite inert under ambient conditions, may become reactive under pressure. The possibility of the formation of stable xenon oxides and silicates in the interior of the Earth could explain the atmospheric missing xenon paradox. Using an ab initio evolutionary algorithm, we predict the existence of thermodynamically stable Xe-O compounds at high pressures (XeO, XeO(2) and XeO(3) be...

Preface A special session entitled “Early Earth from accumulation to formation-” was held on May 24, 2015 during the Japan Geoscience Union (JpGU) annual meeting. This session aimed to bring together high-pressure/hightemperature experiment on physics and chemistry of deep Earth materials, natural observation, and theoretical modeling within the principal subject areas of “Early Earth” research...

a Laboratory of Seismology and Physics of Earth’s Interior, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China b Mengcheng National Geophysical Observatory, Anhui, China c CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026,...

It is widely acknowledged that an important aspect in Earth Science research is the ability to visualize huge amounts of data resulting from numerical simulations or data acquisition. Whether the data is a simple two-dimensional plot or a three-dimensional multivariate grid, the ability to visualize the data is imperative for researchers to properly demonstrate results. This poster will examine...

It is widely believed that the surface heat ftows of the earth and moon provide good measures of the total amounts of radioactives in these bodies. Simple thermal evolution models, based on subsolidus whole mantle convection, indicate that this may not be the case. These models have been constructed assuming an initially h~t st~te, but with a wide varlet~ of choices for the parameters character...

The Precambrian geological record shows peak of activity at 1.1, 1.9–2.1, 2.7 and 3.5 Ga, often associated with massive crustal production, orogenesis and supercontinent cycles. It has been suggested that these bursts of tectonic activity are due to mantle avalanche events, where accumulating subducted slabs periodically penetrate the 670 km discontinuity, and subsequent upwelling counterflow a...

The long-favored paradigm for the development of continental crust is one of progressive growth beginning at approximately 4 billion years ago (Ga). To test this hypothesis, we measured initial 176Hf/177Hf values of 4.01- to 4.37-Ga detrital zircons from Jack Hills, Western Australia. epsilonHf (deviations of 176Hf/177Hf from bulk Earth in parts per 10(4)) values show large positive and negativ...