Talk Title: Water in Earth

Abstract: Water is essential for life as we know it and Earth is often referred to as a water world. But where Earth’s water comes from, how much was accreted, how much was retained in its deep interior, and how it has been recycled through deep time have proven exceptionally challenging questions that require a broad, multi-disciplinary perspective. In this talk I will provide an overview of recent work on these questions with a slant that is concentrated on understanding water from the inside out. We will visit recent work on water in the core, what phases hold water in the mantle and what constraints we can place on its abundance in these massive interior reservoirs from the perspective of petrology, geochemistry, geophysics and geodynamics.

Short Bio: Dr. Michael Walter is the Director of the Earth and Planets Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington D.C. Dr. Walter specializes in high pressure-temperature experimental petrology and mineral physics to address problems relating to the origin and evolution of planets, their differentiation into mantle and core, mantle melting and element partitioning, high-pressure phase relations and crystal chemistry, deep mantle volatile cycles, and the origin of deep mantle diamonds and their mineral inclusions. Dr. Walter received his PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas and is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the Mineralogical Society of America.

Webpage: https://epl.carnegiescience.edu/people/michael-walter; https://carnegiescience.edu/scientist/michael-walter-director-1

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