Conveners
Topical Session 3: Earth & Environment
- Anna Leung (European Spallation Source ERIC)
Hydrous clay minerals (smectites) have complex interactions with water that both define them as separate from other layer silicates (e.g., micas) and also impart their unique suitability as environmental barriers. Cation hydration, surface adsorption and matrix suction are processes by which water is explained to interact with clay mineral surfaces. The hydration energies of cations held...
Some of the most striking images from the New Horizons fly-by of Pluto were of the towering mountains surrounded by seemingly flowing glacial terrain [1]. The explanation for this terrain has its basis in crystallography, where at 44 K the strength of the hydrogen bond endows water ice with the resilience to build such mountains, while the rotational disorder in the solid structures of methane...
The physical extraction of fossilised remains from rocks enables quantitative physiological investigation of bonedimensions,volume, and porosity, however leads to the destruction of valuable contextual information and soft-tissue remains within the matrix.
Conventional and synchrotron-based X-ray computed tomography (XCT) have been utilised for many years as critical tools in uncovering...
