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Both external and internal speakers are invited to the School of Geography, Geology and the Environment to present the latest results of their research.

Everyone is invited, so please join us!

Exploring Planetary Surface Compositions: Why is Mercury so volatile rich?

Wednesday 9 April 2025, 1.00pm-2.00pm, Attenborough 208

Dr Julia Cartwright, School of Physics and Astronomy; Institute for Space; Visiting Researcher in the School of Geology, Geography and the Environment, Â鶹ÊÓƵ

Mercury’s surface composition represents something of an enigma. Everything we know about the smallest and least explored terrestrial planet suggests that it should have experienced high temperatures in its past, stripping away any/all volatiles from the surface, leaving behind only the stable refractory elements. However, data from two previous missions revealed a heterogeneous volatile-rich surface, with distinct geologic terranes, evidence of explosive volcanism and strange sublimation-related topographic features (‘hollows’), requiring a volatile-driving agent(s).

For my fellowship, I am exploring the question Why is Mercury so volatile rich? I am targeting a range of themes through volatile distribution, creating synthetic analogues and working with extra-terrestrial materials to establish a sample catalogue using the novel ground reference facility (GREF), based at Space Park Leicester. The GREF features flight-spare hardware from the MIXS instrument, which forms part of the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission, and it currently en-route to Mercury. This work will provide a robust foundation and comprehensive context for all future Mercury composition studies, with broader impacts for planetary science.

The use of uranium isotopes for tracing crustal recycling

Wednesday 30 April 2025, 1.00pm-2.00pm, Attenborough 001

Dr Joel Rodney, Senior Research Associate, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol

Uranium (U), a redox sensitive element that has changed in elemental and isotopic behaviour over geological time in response to changing surface oxygen contents, is a useful tracer of mantle process. Here I show how U can be used to one trace changes in surface oxygen levels and secondly trace processes of crustal recycling. Uranium elemental and isotopic compositions of mantle derived basalts informs on many aspects of the cycle of crustal recycling from process related to the alteration of oceanic crust, subduction zone processing, and the pollution of ocean island basalts and mid-ocean ridge basalts sources with surface derived material. This work highlights in particular that the upper mantle source of normal-mid-ocean ridge basalts is more polluted with recycled crust than traditionally thought from the traditional radiogenic isotopes, while enriched-mid-ocean ridge basalts sources do not contain a recycled oceanic crust component. Overall this work highlights the usefulness of novel stable isotopes in tracing mantle process and informing on the degree of chemical heterogeneity in the mantle.

Joel is an isotope geochemist interested in understanding the long term chemical evolution of Earths mantle. Joel’s work focuses on using novel stable isotopes to investigate crustal recycling and mantle chemical heterogeneity.

TBC

Wednesday 14 May 2025, 1.00pm-2.00pm, Maurice Shock 257

Dr John Connolly, Assistant Professor in Physical Geography, Trinity College Dublin

Further details to follow.

TBC

Wednesday 4 June 2025, 1.00pm-2.00pm, Attenborough 208

Jack Wright, Spaceflight Project Officer, The Open University

Jack will be starting a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute of Space in Leicester in mid 2025. In this seminar find out more about him and the research he proposes to do here.