Mixing and Volatile Depletion in the Early Solar System
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Earth Science and Engineering
Abstract
Understanding the manner in which Earth inherited its volatile elements is important to understanding the formation of Earths oceans, atmospheres, as well as the onset of life on Earth. The nature of volatile element accretion on the Earth, however, is not fully understood. A debate remains as to the origin of these volatile elements, and the role played by the late veneer in delivering these elements to Earth. My project involves comparing stable Cd and Zn isotopic analysis of terrestrial samples with meteorite samples, in an attempt to assess the origin of volatile elements on Earth.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Mark Rehkamper (Primary Supervisor) | |
| Harvey Pickard (Student) |
Studentship Projects
| Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST/R504798/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/09/2021 | |||
| 1948508 | Studentship | ST/R504798/1 | 01/10/2017 | 30/07/2021 | Harvey Pickard |
| Title | The Great Exhibition Road Festival 2019 |
| Description | Designed and created a logo and selfie board for a stand at the 2019 Great Exhibition Road Festival. |
| Type Of Art | Image |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | Used on on social media and on the day to engage people with the work carried out through the IODP. |
| Description | This work has helped better understand the way in which Earth formed. My research has shown that the meteorites delivered to Earth after core formation, termed the 'late veneer', likely had a mass equal to ~0.5% Earth masses, and not ~3-5% as has previously been argued by some authors. I found that the Cd isotope composition of the Earth is lighter than stony meteorites called chondrites, which are also more enriched in volatile elements such as Cd and Zn compared to Earth. Earth's light Cd composition rules out volatilisation as the main cause for terrestrial volatile depletion, whilst metal-silicate partitioning experiments further exclude core formation, as there is no evidence for significant change in isotope composition during segregation of metal phases from silicates. Instead, mass balance accretion modelling show that Earth may have instead inherited its light Cd isotopes from mixing of isotopically heavy and volatile-enriched carbonaceous chondrites, with isotopically light and volatile-depleted non-carbonaceous chondrites that may resemble a group of meteorites called ordinary chondrites. |
| Exploitation Route | Further research may focus on further characterisation of non-chondritic meteorites, which my research shows could have played an important part in terrestrial volatile accretion. |
| Sectors | Education,Other |
| Description | Imperial Festival 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presented information on the lab work carried out by the research group, with an emphasis on Antarctica, aimed at younger children and families. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.imperial.ac.uk/events/100018/imperial-festival-2018/ |