Evolution and Fate of Chemical Elements in the Earth’s Crust, Ocean, and Atmosphere

Abstract

The Earth’s composition and evolution are topics that give rise to unanswered questions. However, some of the main evidences involving geology, geophysics and climatic equilibrium of our planet seem to imply a possible common explanation. Recently, several data, coming from geochemistry and geomechanics, have emphasized how tectonic activity should have been strictly connected to the most important changes in the Earth’s Crust chemical composition over the last 4.5 Billion years. At the same time, significant measurements of neutron emissions are observed at the Earth’s Crust scale during and before earthquakes. On the other hand, at the laboratory scale, original experiments performed on non-radioactive rocks under mechanical compression loading, have recently shown repeatable neutron emissions in correspondence to micro- and macro-fracture. After these experiments, a considerable reduction in the iron content appears to be consistently counterbalanced by an increase in Al, Si, and Mg contents. On these bases, the hypothesis of a new kind of nuclear reactions finds confirmations and could be considered as a valid explanation for the geologic evolution of the Earth’s Crust, Ocean, and Atmosphere.