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Supplement
Nature 451, 261-265 (17 January 2008) | doi:10.1038/nature06582; Published online 16 January 2008; Corrected 14 March 2008
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Postdoctoral Fellow / Research Associate
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School
- Boston, MA, USA
Faculty Position in Mathematical Biology
- The Ohio State University
- Ohio, USA
A planetary perspective on the deep Earth
David J. Stevenson1
Abstract
Earth's composition, evolution and structure are in part a legacy of provenance (where it happened to form) and chance (the stochastics of that formation).
Earth is an engine, tending to obliterate some of the evidence of events that are distant in time, but a memory is retained in its chemistry, its isotopes, the presence of the Moon, perhaps also in geophysical observables such as the temperature of the core and the nature of the mantle immediately above the core, and maybe even in the existence of plate tectonics and life. The remarkable growth in the study and understanding of Earth has happened in parallel with a spectacular era of planetary exploration, relevant astronomical discoveries and computational and theoretical advances, all of which help us to place Earth and its interior in a perspective that integrates the Earth sciences with extraterrestrial studies and basic sciences such as condensed-matter physics.
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