Descrizione del progetto
Uno sguardo più attento ai 4,4 miliardi di anni di storia della Terra
I ricercatori daranno uno sguardo inedito all’evoluzione della Terra a partire da 4,4 miliardi di anni fa fino a oggi e dall’atmosfera al nucleo. Il progetto MEET, finanziato dal CER, esaminerà l’evoluzione della composizione del mantello, che si trova sopra il nucleo della Terra, e la composizione della crosta. Esso studierà la formazione della crosta, il riciclaggio crosta-mantello e lo scambio crosta-idrosfera sulla base della composizione delle inclusioni fuse e dei minerali ospiti tipici del mantello (olivina) e della crosta (zircone). Il progetto, unendo la modellizzazione geodinamica ai modelli di superficie e climatici, approfondirà ulteriormente il tasso di crescita e di riciclaggio della crosta terrestre nel tempo, la concentrazione e l’origine dell’H2O e degli alogeni nel mantello profondo e l’origine e i controlli della tettonica delle placche sulla Terra.
Obiettivo
Efforts to reconstruct the early Earth evolution lack critical information on the contents of mobile and volatile elements and their isotope signatures in the mantle and crust. Fortunately, this information is preserved in inclusions of melt in relicts of olivine from komatiites and picrites, and zircons from mafic and felsic rocks. In Aim I, we will use compositions and temperatures of primary mantle-derived melts reconstructed from the study of melt inclusions in olivine from komatiites and picrites to constrain the evolution of mantle composition. We will further study crust-formation, crust-mantle recycling, and crust-hydrosphere exchange based on composition of melt inclusions and host zircons. We will analyse a wide range of volatile elements and their isotopes in homogenized melt inclusions and the elemental and isotopic compositions of host olivines and zircons. The samples come from 24 localities of komatiites and picrites originating at different cratons between 3.7 and 0.06 Ga, and detrital and magmatic zircons with ages from 4.4 Ga to present. We will apply published and new models to constrain the temperatures and compositions of mantle and crustal sources. In Aim II, geodynamic modelling will relate our observations to the evolution of mantle convection, crustal production and recycling, and plate tectonics (PT). We will couple geodynamic modelling with surface and climate models and use derived geochemical proxies to test our hypotheses on the importance of surface processes in evolution of PT. We will thus address several fundamental issues: the rate of crustal growth and recycling through time; the cause and timing of the onset of large-scale subduction and PT, and factors controlling its evolution; concentration and origin of H2O and halogens in the deep mantle, and the extent (if any) of core-mantle interaction. MEET will, therefore, offer an unprecedented look at the evolution of Earth from 4.4 Ga to today, and from the atmosphere to the core.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-SyG - Synergy grantIstituzione ospitante
38058 Grenoble
Francia