Hilgenberg has suggested physical relationships [1] in his paper: “From the growing globe” (1933): if the earth is blown up like a ball, then the crust will burst and magma will ooze out at the interfaces, as it is the case at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge [2]. But the increase of the radius also causes the problem that the curvature circle is too tight, so that compressive forces lead to cracks and r...

Prologue: (V)ast globes. . . after reaching the last stages of ebullition, were coveredwith scoriae like bubbling foam. And the crust which covered the molten matter of the globe and which hardened from the fused condition would be like scoria, as happens with metals in the furnace. If then the great framework of the earth, the exposed rocks, the imperishable silicates, are almost entirely vitr...

In preparation to the experimental results which will be available in the future, we study geo-neutrino production for different models of mantle convection and composition. By using global mass balance for the Bulk Silicate Earth, the predicted flux contribution from distant sources in the crust and in the mantle is fixed within a total uncertainty of ±15%. We also discuss regional effects, pr...

Oceanic crust constitutes the largest aquifer system on Earth, and microbial activity in this environment has been inferred from various geochemical analyses. However, empirical documentation of microbial activity from subsurface basalts is still lacking, particularly in the cool (<25°C) regions of the crust, where are assumed to harbor active iron-oxidizing microbial communities. To test this ...

[1] Magnetic fields measured by the satellite Lunar Prospector show large scale features resulting from remanently magnetized crust. Vector data synthesized at satellite altitude from a spherical harmonic model of the lunar crustal field, and the radial component of the magnetometer data, have been used to produce spatially continuous global magnetization models for the lunar crust. The magneti...

[1] Rayleigh wave ellipticity, or H/V ratio, observed on the surface is particularly sensitive to shallow earth structure. In this study, we jointly invert measurements of Rayleigh wave H/V ratio and phase velocity between 24–100 and 8–100 sec period, respectively, for crust and upper mantle structure beneath more than 1000 USArray stations covering the western United States. Upper crustal stru...

[1] The Cenozoic rift system of Baikal, located in the interior of the largest continental mass on Earth, is thought to represent a potential analog of the early stage of breakup of supercontinents. We present a detailed P wave velocity structure of the crust and sediments beneath the Central Basin, the deepest basin in the Baikal rift system. The structure is characterized by a Moho depth of 3...

Wave propagation in heterogeneous media is not only characterized by reflection, transmission and conversion of seismic energy but also by effects such as scattering and tunneling and can be observed on many scales. We investigate elastic wave propagation in the lower crust of the earth. It is remarkable that distance and time scales in a deep crustal reflection problem can be easily transforme...

Ancient zircons from Western Australia's Jack Hills preserve a record of conditions that prevailed on Earth not long after its formation. Widely considered to have been a uniquely violent period geodynamically, the Hadean Eon [4.5 to 4.0 billion years ago (Ga)] has recently been interpreted by some as far more benign-possibly even characterized by oceans like those of the present day. Knowledge...