The Earth’s core is made up of a solid inner portion, encircled by a liquid metallic region [Fig. 1]. Surrounding this is a thick mantle made up of silicates and minor amounts of metal (perhaps reaching 1 wt%), and the outermost layer is the crust, made up of silicates (Figure 1). The mantle is not homogeneous – there are distinct regions of differing mineralogy and composition [2]. Understandi...

Culminating a long series of effort, the monumental work of Patterson [Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 10 (1956) 230] showed that the age of the earth was close to that of most meteorites at 4.55 Ga. Later refinements have consistently arrived at a younger age for the earth, shedding light on the accretion history of the earth. A review of progresses after Patterson’s work is presented on ages for cor...

The lunar magma ocean model is a well-established theory of the early evolution of the Moon. By this model, the Moon was initially largely molten and the anorthositic crust that now covers much of the lunar surface directly crystallized from this enormous magma source. We are undertaking a study of the geochemical characteristics of anorthosites from lunar meteorites to test this model. Rare ea...

[1] Documenting the mass flux through convergent plate margins is important to the understanding of petrogenesis in arc settings and to the origin of the continental crust, since subduction zones are the only major routes by which material extracted from the mantle can be returned to great depths within the Earth. Despite their significance, there has been a tendency to view subduction zones as...

Geothermal energy transported to earth surface through volcanoes and hydrothermal systems. Based on numerical model analysis of deep drilling and exploitation data of some Kamchatka and Kurile Islands geothermal reservoirs , and heat and mass flow rates estimations of some Kamchatka volcanoes , the following conceptual model of geothermal energy transport is suggested : if magma trapped in uppe...

Geologists are acquainted with the principle of uniformitarianism, which holds that present day processes are the key to those that operated in the past. But the extent this applies to the processes driving the growth and differentiation of the continental crust throughout the Earth history remains a major controversy in earth sciences. An important part of the discussion circles around the pre...

1 CAS Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China 2 State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China 3 Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia Isotop...

Because helium and heat production results from a common source, a continental He crustal flux of 4.65*10 14 mol m 2 s 1 has been estimated based on heat flow considerations. In addition, because the observed mantle He /heat flux ratio at the proximity of mid-ocean ridges (6.6*10 14 mol J ) is significantly lower than the radiogenic production ratio (1.5*10 12 mol J ), the presence of a terrest...

Abstract Exposed continents are one of Earth's major characteristics. Recent studies on ancient ocean volume and exposed landmasses suggest, however, that early Earth was possibly a water world, where any significant landmass unlikely to have risen above sea level. On modern Earth, the thickness continental crust seems be controlled by level buoyancy crust. Simply applying this concept Archean ...