Keith D. Putirka – författare

Volume 69 of Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry covers the fundamental issues of volcanology: At what depths are eruptions triggered, and over what time scales? Where and why do magmas coalesce before ascent? If magmas stagnate for thousands of years, what forces are responsible for initiating final ascent, or the degassing processes that accelerate upward motion? To the extent that we can answer these questions, we move towards formulating tests of mechanistic models of volcanic eruptions (e.g., Wilson, 1980; Slezin, 2003; Scandone et al., 2007), and hypotheses of the tectonic controls on magma transport (e.g., ten Brink and Brocher, 1987; Takada, 1994; Putirka and Busby, 2007). Our goal, in part, is to review how minerals can be used to understand volcanic systems and the processes that shape them; we also hope that this work will spur new and integrated studies of volcanic systems.

The focus for RiMG volume 90 is on rocky exoplanets because the search for truly Earth-like planets is of special interest. The goal is to motivate communication between the disciplines so as to make the best use possible of existing data and data yet to be collected by the James Webb and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopes, since the astronomy community is gathering data on stars and exoplanets at an accelerating rate. Such data now include exoplanet size and mass (i.e., density) as well as their atmospheric compositions, which are collectively telltale of mineralogy and evolution. Much of what is published may still fall in the realm of educated speculation, but our conjectures are metamorphosing into testable hypotheses.

There is now a remarkably large amount of astronomical data (with even more on the way) that geochemists and petrologists can make much use of. But just as astronomers may benefit from geologic insights, geologists need our colleagues in astronomy to help interpret their data and their underlying implications to better understand its astronomical context. Our hopes for this volume will be fulfilled if readers initiate their own analyses of what at present may seem like novel or unusual data, and if new collaborations between academic departments and subfields are forged.