Subduction of hydrous materials imposes great influence on the structure, dynamics, and evolution of our planet. However, it is largely unclear how subducting slabs chemically interact with the middle mantle. […]
Astrogeology
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release, Proxima Centauri
Atmospheric Convection Plays A Key Role In The Climate Of Tidally-locked Terrestrial Exoplanets: Insights From High-resolution Simulations
Using a 3D general circulation model (GCM), we investigate the sensitivity of the climate of tidally-locked Earth-like exoplanets, Trappist-1e and Proxima Centauri b, to the choice of a convection parameterization. […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Press Release
Most Of Earth's Carbon Was Hidden In The Core During Its Formative Years
Carbon is an essential building block for all living things on Earth and plays a vital role in many of the geologic processes that shape life on the planet, including […]
Posted inAstrogeology
Earth's Mantle, Not Its Core, May Have Generated Planet's Early Magnetic Field
New research lends credence to an unorthodox retelling of the story of early Earth first proposed by a geophysicist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. In a […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Press Release
Water, Carbon And Nitrogen Were Not Immediately Supplied To Earth
Spearheaded by earth scientists of the University of Cologne, an international team of geologists has found evidence that a large proportion of the elements that are important for the formation […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Press Release
Flash Floods In The Mid-Archean
Scientists supported in part by the NASA Astrobiology Program have provided new details of how the Hooggeneoeg Formation in South Africa was formed. The Hooggeneoeg Formation is found in the […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Press Release
Would A Deep-Earth Water Cycle Change Our Understanding Of Planetary Evolution?
Every school child learns about the water cycle–evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection. But what if there were a deep Earth component of this process happening on geologic timescales that makes […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Press Release
Wind Erosion On Mars And Other Small Terrestrial Planets
We carried out wind tunnel experiments on parabolic flights with 100 μm Mojave Mars simulant sand. The experiments result in shear stress thresholds and erosion rates for varying g-levels at […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Press Release
Oxygen Fugacities Of Extrasolar Rocks: Evidence for an Earth-like Geochemistry of Exoplanets
Oxygen fugacity is a measure of rock oxidation that influences planetary structure and evolution. Most rocky bodies in the Solar System formed at oxygen fugacities approximately five orders of magnitude […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Press Release
Measuring The Atomic Composition Of Planetary Building Blocks
Volatile molecules are critical to habitability, yet difficult to observe directly at the optically thick midplanes of protoplanetary disks, where planets form. We present a new technique to measure indirectly […]