Revealing Earth's Secrets

When we look at remote planets, and stars, or even when we look around us on the surface of the Earth, we only see the surface skin. However, since Newton, we have known that the inside of our planet must be much denser than most of the rocks we see at the surface. Sunlight, earthquakes, meteorites, volcanic rocks, magnets and diamonds provide essential evidence about the invisible interior of our planet. Armed with this knowledge we can make informed predictions about the interiors of other planets in the Solar System and perhaps beyond.

Imagine you could use a device the size of your mobile phone to see the inside of a volcano. Technology developed at the University of Glasgow could make this possible very soon. This technology is a miniatursied gravity sensor, or gravimeter, that lets us see the world from a completely different perspective. From tracking magma moving kilometers under volcanoes before eruptions, to locating earthquake-causing tectonic faults; gravimetry gives us the ability to save the lives of many thousands of people. Richard will discuss developing this new technology, and plans for future applications.

Does life exist, or has it ever existed, on other planets? This question is key to current and future missions to our near neighbour, Mars. To help us understand how life may have survived there, we must explore Mars-like environments on Earth. In these places, we can examine resilient bacterial life forms, and understand how they cope with the combination of extreme cold, lack of water and harmful ultraviolet radiation. Vern will explain the Chilean Altiplano as a suitable Mars-like environment on Earth, and what it tells us about how life survives under extreme conditions.