Grand Research Questions in the Solid-Earth Sciences Final Scientific/Technical Report

Linn, Anne M.

关键词: CLIMATES;    EARTHQUAKES;    FLUID FLOW;    IMPLEMENTATION;    ORIGIN;    PLANETS;    PLATE TECTONICS;    RECOMMENDATIONS;    SOLAR SYSTEM;    TRANSPORT;    CLIMATIC CHANGE planet formation;    origin of life;    continents;    material properties;    mantle convection;    climate change;    earthquakes;    volcanoes;    fluid flow;   

DOI  :  10.2172/943324
RP-ID  :  DOE/ER15664-1 Final Report
PID  :  OSTI ID: 943324
Others  :  TRN: US201107%%669

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

Over the past three decades, Earth scientists have made great strides in understanding our planet’s workings and history. Yet this progress has served principally to lay bare more fundamental questions about the Earth. Expanding knowledge is generating new questions, while innovative technologies and new partnerships with other sciences provide new paths toward answers. A National Academies committee was established to frame some of the great intellectual challenges inherent in the study of the Earth and planets. The goal was to focus on science, not implementation issues, such as facilities or recommendations aimed at specific agencies. The committee canvassed the geological community and deliberated at length to arrive at 10 questions: 1. How did Earth and other planets form? 2. What happened during Earth’s “dark age” (the first 500 million years)? 3. How did life begin? 4. How does Earth’s interior work, and how does it affect the surface? 5. Why does Earth have plate tectonics and continents? 6. How are Earth processes controlled by material properties? 7. What causes climate to change—and how much can it change? 8. How has life shaped Earth—and how has Earth shaped life? 9. Can earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and their consequences be predicted? 10. How do fluid flow and transport affect the human environment? Written for graduate students, colleagues in sister disciplines, and program managers funding Earth and planetary science research, the report describes where the field stands, how it got there, and where it might be headed. Our hope is that the report will spark new interest in and support for the field by showing how Earth science can contribute to a wide range of issues—including some not always associated with the solid Earth—from the formation of the solar system to climate change to the origin of life. Its reach goes beyond the United States; the report is being translated into Chinese and distributed in China.