Department of Gesoscience Associate Professor James Scott has received DFF1 funding for a project aimed at documenting how the interiors of planets form.

Earth is unique in the Solar System because the surface comprises continents and ocean basins. This tectonic configuration is a consequence of the evolution of Earth’s largest body – the mantle. Unlike any other planet, Earth’s mantle evolved from an initial state of planetary differentiation to dramatic melting 1.5 billion years later that resulted in formation of the first continents. The cause of this globally fundamental geological change is not known because mantle rocks from the early Earth are not preserved.

James and team will utilise proxy isotopic information from mineral inclusions trapped in ancient magmatic zircon crystals to see back into the ancient mantle history. When coupled with meteorite data from the Moon, Vesta and Mars, which are differentiated but unevolved rocky bodies, they aim to generate a conceptual model for planetary interior evolution and explain how Earth alone in the Solar System has evolved to have an exceptionally complex geological history.