The American Geophysical Union honored five 91探花 faculty and researchers from the Earth and space sciences and atmospheric and climate science departments this week at the annual meeting in New Orleans.

Each year, the meeting draws thousands of scientists, educators and policymakers to discover emerging research, discuss hurdles and network. Prior to the meeting, AGU announces awards for individuals who have made significant contributions to Earth and space science and presents them in person during the week.

The theme is, 鈥淲here Science Connects Us,鈥� and the 91探花awardees were recognized for research that advances understanding of natural hazards, the history of Earth, weather and climate change.

Here are the UW鈥檚 five recipients and their respective awards:

, a 91探花assistant professor of Earth and space sciences, studies how magmas form beneath volcanoes. She specializes in work that involves using samples from past volcanic eruptions to examine the behavior of volcanic gases like water, carbon, and sulfur, which can help researchers monitor active volcanoes. Muth received the for early career scientists who have made outstanding contributions to fields of volcanology, geochemistry, and petrology.

, a 91探花professor of atmospheric and climate science, studies predictability, mountain meteorology and numerical weather prediction. Durran鈥檚 recent research focuses on using deep learning to change our current paradigm for numerical weather prediction, seasonal forecasting and climate modeling. He holds a joint position with NVIDIA. Durran received the award for prominent scientists who have made exceptional contributions to the understanding of weather and climate.

, a 91探花postdoctoral researcher of atmospheric and climate science, studies the formation and evolution of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, which play a pivotal role in both air pollution and climate change. By identifying and characterizing the fundamental chemical processes governing aerosol behavior, his research supports efforts to predict current atmospheric conditions and the trajectory of air quality and climate moving forward. Kenseth received the recognizing outstanding science and accomplishments by researchers that are within three years of receiving their doctorate.

, a 91探花assistant professor of Earth and space sciences, uses simulations to study the interactions between planetary atmospheres, interiors and biospheres to better understand the long-term evolution of Earth, Venus and rocky exoplanets. By building a holistic understanding of planetary evolution, this work will help enable scientists to search for life on other planets. Krissansen-Totton received the recognizing significant contributions to planetary science by early career researchers

, a 91探花professor of Earth and space sciences, studies the ratio of elements and their isotopes in rocks and minerals to understand how planets form and evolve. His research introduced a new method for analysis involving isotopic 鈥渇ingerprints鈥� that allows scientists to learn about Earth鈥檚 crust, the composition of the mantle, the origins of magma and even the early solar system. Teng was inducted as a , a program that recognizes AGU members who have made exceptional contributions to Earth and space science through a breakthrough, discovery or innovation in their field.

New 91探花 research shows that a common type of volcano is not just spewing molten rock from the mantle, but contains elements that suggest something more complicated is drawing material out of the descending plate of Earth’s crust.

Geologists have long believed that solidified volcanic lava, or basalt, originates in the mantle, the molten rock just below the crust. But the new study uses detailed chemical analysis to find that the basalt’s magnesium 鈥� a shiny gray element that makes up about 40 percent of the mantle but is rare in the crust 鈥� does not look like that of the mantle, and shows a surprisingly large contribution from the crust. The paper was published the week of June 13 in the .

“Although the volcanic basalt was produced from the mantle, its magnesium signature is very similar to the crustal material,” said lead author , a 91探花associate professor of Earth and space sciences. “The ocean-floor basalts are uniform in the type of magnesium they contain, and other geologists agree that on a global scale the mantle is uniform,” he said. “But now we found one type of the mantle is not.”

The study used rock samples from an inactive volcano on the Caribbean island of Martinique, a region where an ocean plate is slowly plunging, or subducting, beneath a continental plate. This situation creates an , a common type of volcano that includes those along the Pacific Ocean’s “.”

Researchers chose to study a volcano in the Caribbean partly because the Amazon River carries so much sediment from the rainforest to the seabed. One reason scientists want to pin down the makeup of volcanic material is to learn how much of the carbon-rich sediment from the surface gets carried deep in the Earth, and how much gets scraped off from the descending plate and reemerges into the planet’s atmosphere.

Analyzing the weight of magnesium atoms in the erupted basalt shows that they came not from the mantle, nor from the organic sediment scraped off during the slide, but directly from the descending oceanic crust. Yet the volcanic basalt lacks other components of the crust.

“The majority of the other ingredients are still like the mantle; the only difference is the magnesium. The question is: Why?” Teng said.

The authors hypothesize that at great depths, magnesium-rich water is squeezed from the rock that makes up Earth’s crust. As the fluid travels, the surrounding rock acts like a Brita filter that picks up the magnesium, transferring magnesium particles from the crust to the mantle just below the subduction zone.

“This is what we think is very exciting,” Teng said. “Most people think you add either crustal or mantle materials as a solid. Here we think the magnesium was added by a fluid.”

Fluids seem to play a role in seismic activity at subduction zones, Teng said, and having more clues to how those fluids travel deep in the Earth could help better understand processes such as volcanism and deep earthquakes.

He and co-author , a 91探花doctoral student in Earth and space sciences, plan to do follow-up studies on basalt rocks from the Cascade Mountains and other arc volcanoes to analyze their magnesium composition and see if this effect is widespread.

The other co-author is at the University of Grenoble in France. The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the French National Research Agency.

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For more information, contact Teng at fteng@uw.edu or 206-543-7615.

Grants: NSF: EAR-1340160 and ANR-10-BLAN-0603