Dr. Alisha Clark
CU Boulder
 

Topic: Under Pressure

Abstract: Measuring physical properties of Earth materials at high pressure and temperatures is fundamentally important for understanding the accretion, dynamic evolution, and eventual destruction of our home planet as well as other terrestrial bodies in the solar system and beyond. Additionally, there are numerous societal and technological applications for understanding Earth material properties at extreme conditions. However, generating the pressures (102 GPa) and temperatures (103 K) of the Earth’s interior is technically challenging. In this talk, I will introduce the two pulsed power machines at Sandia National Laboratories, Thor and the Z-machine, which have the ability to generate the conditions found in planetary interiors. These machines are opening new directions in tackling long standing Earth science questions. I will present results from one such question that my research group is studying: What is the origin of Earth’s water?