'Deep' Mineralogy (Extraterrestrial Mineralogy, Planetary interiors)
Mineral Physics: a Key to Understanding the Interior of Earth and Planets
Co-Conveners
Paola Comodi, University of Perugia
Jun Tsuchiya, Osaka University
Shaunna M. Morrison, Carnegie Institution for Science
In recent years, the disciplines of mineral physics and planetary science have increasingly intersected, opening new research frontiers. Both fundamental and applied studies now span a broad range of themes, from planetary structure and dynamics, to the search for critical raw materials essential for energy and technological innovation in an era of terrestrial resource depletion, to the exploration of such materials on extraterrestrial bodies, and even to the quest for extraterrestrial life. These developments have made investigations of planetary composition and dynamics increasingly detailed and compelling, attracting interest from scientists across diverse disciplines.
Mineral physics has long served as a powerful means of simulating conditions inaccessible to direct sampling, such as those of Earth’s deep interior, thereby providing unique opportunities to explore material behavior under extreme conditions. Today, advances in experimental techniques and instrumentation enable studies under conditions comparable to those inside giant planets. At the same time, rapid progress in computational methods for modeling highly complex systems has made it possible to investigate environments that were unimaginable only a few decades ago.
The purpose of this session is to provide a forum for experimentalists and computational scientists from various areas of mineral physics to present their latest results—obtained using diverse approaches, including diffraction- and spectroscopy-based methods in planetary science—and to discuss future research directions. We anticipate that discussions among researchers from multiple disciplines will stimulate further advances in mineral physics.
