The Earth Science Colloquium presents:
What is powering the Earth's Engine?
Dr. William F. McDonough, Professor, University of Maryland and Tohoku University, Japan.
Abstract
The fuel driving plate tectonics, volcanoes, mantle convection, and the Earth’s magnetic field comes from two sources: primordial energy from assembling the planet and nuclear energy, the heat produced during natural radioactive decay. Widely differing models estimate how much primordial and nuclear fuel remains inside Earth. However, teams of geologists and neutrino physicists are boldly claiming that the new field of Neutrino Geophysics can determine how much nuclear fuel (i.e., radioactive power) remains in the Earth. For the last two decades neutrino physicists have been detecting low energy (MeV) electron anti-neutrinos emitted from the Earth (geoneutrinos); these fundamental particles are produced by beta minus radioactive decay of U and Th. Collectively, the flux of geoneutrinos measured at detectors in Japan and Italy, soon a report from Canada, and in 2026 data from China reveal the radiogenic power driving the Earth’s engine. These data will define the compositional model of the Earth, place tight constraints on its thermal evolution, and independently confirm the planets chondritic ratio of refractory elements.
Host: Dr. Renata Wentzcovitch, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering in the Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics Department, Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
The Earth Science Colloquium Series, sponsored by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Columbia University Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES), provides a lively forum for discussing a wide variety of topics within the Earth sciences and related fields. Colloquia are attended by the full range of scientific and technical staff at LDEO. Colloquium attendance is required of all pre-orals DEES graduate students. The Colloquium Series supports the Lamont Seminar Diversity Initiative.
