Materials in Extreme Environments

About this episode

The episode discusses the behavior of rocks and minerals under extreme conditions with mineral physicist Steve Jacobsen.

Most of the material in the Earth and other planets exists under extremes of pressure and temperature quite unlike those we inhabit on the surface of the Earth. Steve Jacobsen is a mineral physicist who studies how rocks and minerals behave under such alien conditions. In the podcast, we discuss his experiments and what we’ve learned about three extreme environments: the core-mantle boundary, the mantle transition zone, and the surface of the Moon. Jacobsen is a Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. The image shows him in his optical spectroscopy lab, where extreme conditions found throughout the solar system are re-created.

People in this episode

Host: Oliver Strimpel

Guest: Steve Jacobsen

Topics covered

• mineral physics
• extreme environments
• core-mantle boundary
• mantle transition zone
• Moon surface

Keywords

• materials
• pressure
• temperature
• experiments
• geological sciences
• solar system

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Colorado Boulder

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