Project description
Tracing the origin and evolution of Earth’s atmospheric elements
Earth’s atmosphere consists of about 80 % nitrogen and 20 % oxygen. The interactions between the atmosphere and the continental crust play a major role in controlling nutrient bioavailability and composition in the atmosphere. However, there is no scientific consensus on how and why these two molecules emerged and persisted in the atmosphere. The EU-funded ATTRACTE project aims to enhance knowledge of the main drivers that underpinned the evolution of Earth’s atmosphere over the course of geological aeons. A variety of "proxies" (e.g. minerals containing geochemical signatures from the atmosphere) will be used to analyse new and past atmospheric gases.
Objective
Planetary atmospheres are fundamental reservoirs controlling the habitability of planets. The chemical and isotopic compositions of atmospheric constituents also hold clues on the geological evolution of the entire planetary body. Today, Earth's atmosphere contains about 80% dinitrogen and 20% dioxygen. Yet, there is no scientific consensus on how and why these two molecules emerged and persisted in the Earth's atmosphere. The interactions between the atmosphere and the continental crust also play a major role in controlling the bio-availability of nutrients and the composition of the atmosphere, and thus the climate. However, the evolution of the volume of continental crust over time is strongly debated. Project ATTRACTE will significantly improve our knowledge of the main drivers of atmospheric evolution over time. This will be achieved by going back in time and following the evolution of the composition of the Earth's atmosphere over geological eons. Analyses of gases contained in traditional and new paleo-atmospheric proxies, the post-impact hydrothermal minerals, will be carried out with innovative mass spectrometry techniques. The isotopic composition of paleo-atmospheric xenon will provide new constraints on the history of hydrogen escape for the Archean Earth. Coupled argon and nitrogen measurements will allow to determine, for the first time, the evolution of the partial pressure of atmospheric dinitrogen. Paleo-atmospheric data gathered during the project will be fed in numerical models of Earth's atmospheric and crustal evolution. This will allow to reconstruct how volatile elements have been exchanged between the silicate Earth and the atmosphere through time. Results gathered during project ATTRACTE will ultimately provide new datasets for climate studies of the ancient Earth but will also help building the scientific framework required to interpret future observations of exoplanetary atmospheres and to portray the geology of extrasolar planets.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences chemical sciences inorganic chemistry noble gases
- humanities history and archaeology history
- natural sciences physical sciences astronomy planetary sciences planets
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences geology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2021-STG
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
75794 PARIS
France
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.