katherine r. bermingham...the rest of the elements are made in stars via nucleosynthesis. it is the...

Ask a Geologist:Formation of the Earth

Katherine R. Bermingham

About Me

Katherine R. Bermingham

● Scientist who studies how Earth formed

Ask A Geologist Series

About Me

● Born and raised in Australia


About Me

● Moved to Germany to pursue a PhD


Muenster, Germany

About Me

● Moved to USA (Washington DC) to pursue a postdoc


Washington DC, USA

About Me

● Just arrived at Rutgers University for an Assistant Professorship


Rutgers University, USA

Earth is a planet


How did the Earth form?

● One of the most fundamental questions of humankind


Formation of Earth

● This is a big topic!


Where to start…

How was Earth formed?

1. What is Earth made of?


2. How was Earth formed?

What is Earth made of?

● Look around, what do we see?


Humans Vegetation Animals

What is Earth made of?

● Look around, what do we see?


Land Water Atmosphere

HydrosphereBiosphere

AtmosphereGeosphere

4 spheres of Earth

Lynch 002 (lunar breccia)

HydrosphereBiosphere

AtmosphereGeosphere

4 spheres of Earth

What constitutes these spheres?

● Matter: Physical substance, as distinct from mind and spirit.

● Elements: A material that cannot be chemically changed or broken down into simpler substances.


Matter and the elements

● Elements are listed in the Periodic Table

● All these elements combine to make up the Earth


Where do the elements come from?

● Some elements come from the Big Bang (H, He).

● The Big Bang is a theory about the history of matter and energy (Georges Lemaître, astronomer, 1927).

● ~13 billion years ago, the universe was inside a bubble that was smaller than a pinhead, and this exploded (Big Bang!) to make the universe.



● The rest of the elements are made in stars via nucleosynthesis. It is the process of creating new atomic nuclei through nuclear reactions.




Which stars? ● Look up: Stars in

our night sky, or● The Sun

Stellar additions to our world


Dying low mass star

Exploding massive star

Exploding white dwarf

Merging neutron

stars

More?


1. What is Earth made of? Elements.


2. How was Earth formed?

The elements combined


Dying low mass star

Exploding massive star

Exploding white dwarf

Merging neutron

stars

To make molecular clouds


To make planetary disks


To make the planets


To form the Solar System



To form Earth (and the Moon)


1. What is Earth made of? Elements.


2. How was Earth formed? Through a series of collisions of smaller Solar

System objects.


How do we work this out?

1. Observations of Earth, planets, stars, and solar systems



2. Modelling complex processes to match observations

CERC @ Carleton College



3. Chemical analysis of samples (meteorites, Earth rocks…)

Sample preparation

Ion exchange chromatography

Instrument analysis

Sample dissolution

NASA, Spitzer Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, K. Walsh

?

Thesis of Solar System origin


Planetary science careers

● Cosmochemist● Geologist● Astrophysicist● Modeler● Engineer● Architect● Lead space missions● Astronaut


And Earth…

We know part of the story about how

Earth formed. Will you discover the rest?

?

Question Time!


And Earth…

References

● NASA

● Shutterstock

● Corina World Map Kids

● Rutgers University

● Pixabay.com,

● Popular mechanics,

● United Nations,

● Paper.street,

● 123RF

● Newsweek.com

● Sami Mikhail

● https://www.pinterest.com/pin/448671181608283135/

● AliExpress

● ESA

● Encyclopedia Britannica

● U.S. Department of Energy

● ESO

● ALMA

● Astronomyblog

● Microsoft Word

● www.tes.com

● Wikipedia

● Hubble

● CERC @ Carleton College

● ThermoFisher

● MyIconStory

● Please contact me for information on sources that may have been accidentally overlooked in this list.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/448671181608283135/

http://www.tes.com/

katherine r. bermingham...the rest of the elements are made in stars via nucleosynthesis. it is the...

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