Findings and Recommendations - New Research Opportunities in the Earth Sciences - page 88

Finding 4: Education of graduate students in venues such as the Center for
Interdisciplinary Deep Earth Research (CIDER) program can be an effective strategy
to foster the interdisciplinary collaborations and advanced training needed to solve
early Earth problems.
Recommendation: EAR should take appropriate steps to encourage work on
the history and fundamental physical and chemical processes that governed
the evolution of Earth from the time of its accretion through the end of late
heavy bombardment and into the early Archaen, perhaps by establishing a
specific initiative on early Earth. Specific program objectives and scope may
be developed through community workshops that prepare a science plan
preceding a separate call for proposals.
Instrument and Facilities Needs for the Early Earth Initiative
Finding 1: The computation challenges of studying planet formation, the impacts that
influence this stage of Earth history, magma ocean dynamics, and the coupled early
Earth systems are formidable: these are peta-scale applications. Activities and
software development similar to those currently done by the Computational
Infrastructure for Geodynamics (CIG) will be necessary. This includes developing
systems that are optimized for data-intensive computations.
Finding 2: The new generation of high-resolution analytical facilities provide a
combination of precision, resolution of small scales, and increased throughput,
allowing geochemical measurements for extracting information from the limited
number and size of early Earth samples. Modern synchrotron facilities open the
possibility of doing mineral physics experiments at pressures and temperatures
relevant for the full range of early Earth conditions. Continued access and training
support for these community facilities will be important.
Finding 3: Databases for compiling and disseminating data relevant to the early Earth
will be important. If supported by NSF, they will need to be continuously evaluated
as to timeliness, effectiveness, and usefulness.
Finding 4: Continued access to labs that provide experimental capabilities at extreme
pressures and temperatures under the dynamical conditions experienced during
energetic collisions early in Earth's history will remain important.
THERMO-CHEMICAL INTERNAL DYNAMICS
AND VOLATILE DISTRIBUTION
The most compelling problems associated with the deep Earth, of which three
have been summarized in Chapter 2, are on the scale of Grand Challenges. Research
frontiers and opportunities in studying the deep Earth system are explicitly