Tracking the carbon: Integrated numerical and experimental study of Earth's accretion and internal evolution

Rebecca Fischer博士已获得NSF地球科学博士后奖学金，在史密森学会国家自然历史博物馆和圣克鲁斯的加州大学开展研究和推广计划。这项研究将侧重于在地球历史早期向地球输送碳，以及碳在地球形成中的作用。行星生长的模拟将用于了解挥发性物质输送到地球的时间和来源区域。高压实验将提供深入了解在核心形成过程中发生的核心/地幔化学反应的碳的影响。核心形成过程的建模将应用这些实验和模拟的结果来研究碳对核心成分的影响。这项工作对地球深部碳的分布和丰度、地球挥发物的起源以及地核的组成和形成都有意义。在该奖学金的支持下，Fischer将参与指导本科生和科学界的服务活动。该项目将采用实验和数值方法的新颖组合。我们太阳系中类地行星吸积的N体模拟将用于探索不完美吸积对所产生的行星化学的影响，重点是挥发性物质的传递。已知碳在中等压力下会影响许多元素的金属/硅酸盐分配，但以前从未在地球核心形成的较高压力-温度条件下进行过研究。Fischer将使用激光加热的金刚石对顶砧，结合高精度分析技术来研究碳的这些影响，并使用建模来确定碳如何影响地球核心的组成。这项高度跨学科的研究将为行星形成和核心分离的研究创造新的数据和模拟应用。

Dr. Rebecca Fischer has been granted an NSF Earth Sciences postdoctoral fellowship to carry out a research and outreach plan at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum for Natural History and the University of California, Santa Cruz. This research will focus on the delivery of carbon to the Earth early in its history and the role of carbon in our planet's formation. Simulations of planetary growth will be used to learn about the timing and source regions of volatile delivery to the Earth. High pressure experiments will provide insight into the effects of carbon on core/mantle chemical reactions that took place during core formation. Modeling of the core formation process will apply results from these experiments and simulations to investigate the effects of carbon on the core's composition. This work has implications for the distribution and abundance of carbon in the deep Earth, the origins of Earth's volatiles, and the composition and formation of its core. Fischer will be involved in mentoring undergraduate students and service activities in the scientific community while supported by this fellowship.This project will feature a novel combination of experimental and numerical methods. N-body simulations of terrestrial planet accretion in our Solar System will be used to explore the effects of imperfect accretion on resulting planetary chemistry with a focus on volatile delivery. Carbon is known to affect the metal/silicate partitioning of many elements at moderate pressures, but this has never previously been investigated at the higher pressure-temperature conditions of Earth's core formation. Fischer will use laser-heated diamond anvil cells coupled with high precision analytical techniques to study these effects of carbon, and use modeling to determine how carbon affects the composition of Earth's core. This highly interdisciplinary study will create new applications of data and simulations to the study of planetary formation and core segregation.