CAREER: Extreme climate perturbations by meteorite impacts and volcanism on terrestrial planets

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Earth is still the only planet known to harbor life at the present. Mars, our best studied neighbor in the Solar System, is known to have been habitable intermittently in the past. The work proposed here will shed light on the processes that have shaped the two planets. Both Earth and Mars have undergone volcanism and giant impacts. There is evidence that Mars had surface liquid water at a time when it was very cold but impacts and volcanic events (both of which could affect the temperature) were extremely common. The project will work to explain the effects of these two processes simultaneously, rather than separately. The investigator will use computer models to create a wide range of possible outcomes for varying levels of volcanic and impact activity. The results will be useful to terrestrial exoplanet studies as well as to the Solar System. The investigator will build and expand upon an outreach program to children 5-7 years old that he has begun in the Cambridge, MA, area. He works with teachers to present age-appropriate activities in astronomy and planetary science, and he will involve his students to give them experience interacting with the public. The proposed program will address three key problems in impact/volcano climate forcing in the Solar System. The role of impacts on Mars in early episodes of fluvial erosion 3-4 Ga will be considered. On Earth, the effect of the eruptions that may have triggered an important Snowball event will be studied. Finally, he will use the insight gained from these case studies to make general predictions about extreme perturbations in climate for any terrestrial planet, including exoplanets. He will use state-of-the-art modeling tools, starting with 1D circulation models and working up to 3D models. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.