GSNZ Wellington branch talk
The Breakup of Earth: from rock fracture modelling to a new hypothesis of Earth evolution
presented by Professor Chun'an Tang, Director of the Center for Rock Instability and Seismicity Research at Dalian University of Technology and Chair of the Computational Geoscience Research Center, Chengdu University of Technology in China.
The magma ocean that existed on the early Earth finally solidified to form a coherent lithosphere. This lithosphere insulated the underlying mantle leading to warming, thermal expansion, partial melting and a geoid bulge. This in turn may trigger breakup of the lithosphere and the onset of plate tectonics. As a consequence, heat balance is disturbed, which results in thermal fluctuation. On a global scale, a cycle of warming and cooling happened many times throughout geological history. This in turn may induce geological events as a response to the thermal cycles.
The speaker will present a simple model of Earth evolution as a thermal system, based on rock fracture modelling method, trying to answer many questions about Earth’s history that are as yet unanswered.
Members are encouraged to meet beforehand at 5:30pm at the Backbencher for social drinks.
This event will also be live streamed https://vuw.zoom.us/j/91774305723
Contact: wellington@gsnz.org.nz