Collaborative Research: GLOW Tracing Earths Accretion Using Siderophile Element Genetics

我们的星球是由来自新兴太阳系各个部分的天体形成的。要了解唯一已知的宜居行星的起源和初始组成，就需要了解地球在太阳系中形成的时间和地点。这个地球科学部-其他世界的地球科学经验（GLOW）奖支持一个项目，该项目旨在扩大和深化对构成地球的材料以及它们如何演变成宜居星球的理解。该项目结合了陨石中成熟的宇宙化学同位素示踪剂（行星形成的碎片）和陆地地球化学示踪剂，以确定地球形成末期添加的地球构建块的组成。地球历史上的这一时期可能见证了部分生命播种材料的运送，使其成为研究的主要目标。该项目旨在支持和教育研究生和本科生，以帮助满足大学层面对跨学科行星科学研究项目日益增长的需求。它还协调职业生涯早期和中期的科学家，以促进对样本数据和数值影响模型的方法和解释的整合，使它们与更广泛的行星科学界和学生团体相关并可获得。要了解唯一已知的宜居行星的起源和初始组成，就需要了解太阳系中地球的基石是何时何地形成的。该项目将陨石中亲铁元素的成熟的遗传示踪能力与陆地地球化学数据相结合，以限制地球构建块在其形成结束时的组成。地球历史上的这一时期可能见证了部分挥发性预算（例如，氢、氮、碳、氧、硫化合物）的传递，使其成为研究的主要目标。为了研究在这一吸积阶段添加的物质的性质，该项目将评估晚期吸积如何改变地幔亲铁同位素组成。该项目将生成一个独特且自一致的地幔衍生物质亲铁同位素数据集，以约束几个未研究的陆地地幔域的组成。通过将这些和其他陆地同位素数据与已公布的陨石遗传同位素数据进行对比，将推进地球历史晚期积累的建筑块的遗传学。样品衍生的同位素数据将被整合到混合计算中，由平滑粒子流体动力学碰撞模拟提供信息，预测撞击体后期吸积后产生的地幔成分。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Our planet formed from bodies that were sourced from various parts of the emerging Solar System. To understand the origin and initial composition of the only known habitable planet, knowledge of when and from where Earth’s building blocks formed in the Solar System is required. This Division of Earth Sciences - Geoscience Lessons for and from Other Worlds (GLOW) award supports a project which aims to broaden and deepen the understanding of what materials made Earth and how they evolved into a habitable planet. The project combines well-established cosmochemical isotopic tracers in meteorites, the debris of planet formation, with terrestrial geochemical tracers to identify the composition of Earth’s building blocks that were added towards the end of the planet’s formation. This period in Earth’s history may have witnessed delivery of a portion of life-seeding materials, making it a prime target for study. The project serves to support and educate graduate and undergraduate students to help meet a growing demand for cross-disciplinary planetary science research projects at the university level. It also coordinates early and mid-career scientists to facilitate integration of methods and interpretations of sample data and numerical impact models to make them relevant and accessible to the broader planetary science community and student body. Understanding the origin and initial composition of the only known habitable planet requires knowledge of when and from where in the Solar System Earth’s building blocks accreted. This project combines the well-established genetic tracer capabilities of siderophile (iron-loving) elements in meteorites with terrestrial geochemical data to constrain the composition of Earth’s building blocks towards the end of its formation. This period in Earth’s history may have witnessed delivery of a portion of the volatile budget (e.g., H, N, C, O, S compounds), making it a prime target for study. To investigate the nature of material added during this stage of accretion, the project will assess how late accretion modified mantle siderophile isotopic compositions. The project will generate a unique and self-consistent siderophile isotopic dataset of mantle-derived materials to constrain the composition of several unstudied terrestrial mantle domains. The genetics of building blocks accreted late in Earth’s history will be advanced by contrasting these and other terrestrial isotopic data with published genetic isotope data in meteorites. Sample-derived isotopic data will be integrated into mixing calculations informed by smoothed particle hydrodynamic impact simulations that predict resultant mantle compositions following late accretion of impactors.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.