Advances in the Study of Fluids and Melts Under Extreme Conditions

About this Research Topic

Background

Fluids and melts are key vectors of mass and heat transfer between the deep Earth and surficial reservoirs. Consequently, they play a critical role in its structural and chemical evolution over geological times. Their underlying physico-chemical properties control the nature of global geochemical, geophysical and geodynamical processes and are thus of key relevance to understand for example, the properties of Earth's liquid core dynamo, the differentiation of the core and Earth's mantle, the re-distribution of major and trace elements between the different reservoirs, the occurrence of deep earthquakes or the variability of volcanism and its bearing on the Earth’s atmosphere.

A detailed knowledge of the physico-chemical properties of aqueous fluids and silicate, carbonate, or metallic melts under high to extreme pressure and temperature conditions is therefore essential to many research domains in Earth and Planetary sciences.

In the past decades, technical advances in the development of extreme Pressure – Temperature (P-T) conditions and in the in situ and ex situ analytical methods (e.g., micro and nano-probes or time-resolved analyses at synchrotron sources), as well as the design of new high-speed clusters for computational studies, have opened new avenues to gain such knowledge even at Earth's inner core conditions.

This Research Topic aims to address the research advances in the study of extreme conditions involving fluids and melts. Authors are welcome to contribute articles presenting new experimental and theoretical advances related to this field. Contributions discussing fluids properties, fluid-rock interactions, melting processes and equations of state, from shallow crustal levels to the deep conditions of planetary interiors are welcome. Discussion on how the change of chemical and physical properties of matter influence the large scale structure and behaviour of planetary interiors over time, as well as technological improvements in the study of fluids and melt are also appreciated.

Keywords: extreme conditions of fluids and melts, fluid-rock interactions, melting processes, physio-chemical properties, inner core conditions

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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