Publications

Earth’s core formation set the initial compositions of the core and mantle. Various aspects of core formation, such as the degree of metal–silicate equilibration, oxygen fugacity, and depth of equilibration, have significant consequences for the resulting...

The Earth and other terrestrial planets formed through the accretion of smaller bodies, with their core and mantle compositions primarily set by metal–silicate interactions during accretion. The conditions of these interactions are poorly understood, but...

Synchrotron X-ray diffraction data were obtained to simultaneously measure unit-cell volumes of W and WO₂ at pressures and temperatures up to 70 GPa and 2300 K. Both W and WO₂ unit-cell volume data were fit to Mie-Grüneisen equations of state; parameters...

The temperature of the Earth’s core has significant implications in many areas of geophysics, including applications to Earth’s heat flow, core composition, age of the inner core, and energetics of the geodynamo. The temperature of the core at the inner...

Deep Earth: Physics and Chemistry of the Lower Mantle and Core highlights recent advances and the latest views of the deep Earth from theoretical, experimental, and observational approaches and offers insight into future research directions on the deep...

The high-cosmic abundance of sulfur is not reflected in the terrestrial crust, implying it is either sequestered in the Earth’s interior or was volatilized during accretion. As it has widely been suggested that sulfur could be one of the contributing...

The distributions of major and minor elements in Earth’s core and mantle were primarily established by high pressure, high temperature metal–silicate partitioning during core segregation. The partitioning behaviors of moderately siderophile elements can...

The Earth’s iron-rich inner core is seismically anisotropic, which may be due to the preferred orientation of Fe-rich hexagonal close packed (hcp) alloy crystals. Elastic anisotropy in a hexagonal crystal is related to its c/a axial ratio; therefore, it...

We have fabricated novel controlled-geometry samples for the laser-heated diamond-anvil cell (LHDAC) in which a transparent oxide layer (SiO₂) is sandwiched between two laser-absorbing layers (Ni) in a single, cohesive sample. The samples were mass...

The agglomeration of planetary embryos and planetesimals was the final stage of terrestrial planet formation. This process is modeled using N-body accretion simulations, whose outcomes are tested by comparing to observed physical and chemical Solar System...

Earth's core is an iron-rich alloy containing several weight percent of light element(s), possibly including silicon. Therefore, the high pressure-temperature equations of state of iron-silicon alloys can provide understanding of the properties of Earth's...

The ability to produce high pressures and temperatures (P–T), and study the physical and chemical properties of solids and melts at these conditions, is possible through the use of the laser-heated diamond anvil cell (LH-DAC). High P–T experiments are...