NSF-Postdoctoral Fellow Alisha Clark's Research Featured in APS Science
October 11, 2017
NSF-Postdoctoral Fellow Alisha Clark's research at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory was chosen as a research highlight in APS Science, the laboratory's annual report.
Enhancing Our Understanding of Mantle Melt Fraction
Using brilliant synchrotron X-rays produced at the Advanced Photon Source of Argonne National Laboratory, NSF-Postdoc Alisha Clark has carried out experiments on basaltic glasses from the Columbia River basalt province. By combining X-ray microtomography with measurements of elastic wave velocities as a function of pressure, Dr. Clark has discovered that melts do not follow the behavior of density and seismic wave velocity predicted by standard theory. Rings and chains of atoms in melts can bend, twist, and buckle under compression leading to much slower seismic wave velocities than previously thought, providing new constraints on how melt fraction in the upper mantle may be inferred from seismic imaging.
View the APS article in its entirety here.