Strategy for Applying Neutrino Geophysics to the Earth Sciences Including Planetary Habitability

Antineutrino data constrain the concentrations of the heat producing elements U and Th as well as potentially the concentration of K. Interpretation is similar to but not homologous with gravity. Current geoneutrino physics efficiently asks simple questions taking advantage of what is already known about the Earth. A few measurements with some sites in the ocean basins will constrain the concentration of U and Th in the crust and mantle and whether the mantle is laterally heterogeneous. These results will allow Earth science arguments about the formation, chemistry, and dynamics of the Earth to be turned around and appraised. In particular, they will tell whether the Earth accreted its expected share of these elements from the solar nebula and how long radioactive heat will sustain active geological processes on the Earth. Both aspects are essential to evaluating the Earth as a common or rare habitable planet.     

Radioactivity of the Earth and the Case for Potassium in the Earth’s Core

The radioactivity of the earth is an important parameter in understanding the dynamics of the planet and the evolution of the crust–mantle–core system but geochemical and geophysical approaches have had only a limited success in defining it. The opportunity of a direct estimate of the radioactivity of the earth by measurement of the geoneutrino flux takes on an added significance in this context. Such an independent new measurement will help resolve and/or clarify a number of questions about global scale processes in the earth and will help advance earth sciences.