Cross-section of the Earth’s interior: crust, upper- and lower-mantle, and outer- and inner-cores. Credit: Mikio Fukuhara, Alexander Yoshino, an

Challenging the Big Bang Puzzle of Heavy Elements: Earth Factories Creating Elements From Nuclear Transmutation

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2021-10-20 22:30:02

Cross-section of the Earth’s interior: crust, upper- and lower-mantle, and outer- and inner-cores. Credit: Mikio Fukuhara, Alexander Yoshino, and Nobuhisa Fujima

Rather than being created solely during supernova explosions, chemical elements could also be produced deep within the Earth’s lower mantle.

It has long been theorized that hydrogen, helium, and lithium were the only chemical elements in existence during the Big Bang when the universe formed, and that supernova explosions, stars exploding at the end of their lifetime, are responsible for transmuting these elements into heavier ones and distributing them throughout our universe.

Researchers in Japan and Canada are now challenging a piece of the Big Bang puzzle. Do all of the elements heavier than iron really originate from stars exploding, or are some created deep within the Earth’s mantle, thanks to convection dynamics driven by plate tectonics?

In AIP Advances, by AIP Publishing, the group proposes an alternative model for the formation of nitrogen, oxygen, and water based on the history of the Earth’s atmosphere.

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