Date/Time
Date(s) - 06/25/2024
3:30 pm
Location
Virtual Event
Category(ies)
Join the Carnegie Science Earth and Planets Laboratory for a talk with Director, Michael Walter, entitled, “Goodness Gracious, Great Balls of Fire! – How Magma Oceans Shaped Planetary Evolution.”
This talk is part of the ongoing Neighborhood Lecture Series. Rocky planet formation in our solar system was rapid and extremely energetic. Two processes assured that, in their infancy, planets went through one or more phases where they were mostly or entirely molten – decay of short-lived nuclides and high-energy collisions. The more planet formation is studied, the clearer it becomes that “magma oceans” and the way they degas and solidify set the stage for evolving to the mature planets observed today.
> To register for the virtual event, click here.
About the Speaker
Experimental petrologist Michael Walter became Director of the Geophysical Laboratory beginning April 1, 2018. The Lab merged with the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism in 2020, forming the Earth and Planets Laboratory, where he was Deputy Director until January 2022, when he became Director. Walter specializes in high-pressure-temperature experimental petrology and mineral physics to address problems relating to the origin and evolution of planets, their differentiation into mantle and core, mantle melting and element partitioning, high-pressure phase relations and crystal chemistry, and the origin of deep mantle diamonds and their mineral inclusions. Mike’s work on diamonds has focused on sub-lithospheric diamonds and their origin in relation to the subduction of surface rocks into the deep mantle, and how they inform us about the cycling of carbon, water, and other volatile components into the deep Earth.
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