• Aug 2022: Jin moves to Texas A&M University. Bye - Albuquerque! Howdy - College Station. 

• Jul 2022: Wenyi's 4th paper "High pressure-temperature phase equilibrium studies on Martian basalts: implications for the failure of plate tectonics on Mars" was accepted for publication on Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Wenyi conducted high pressure-temperature multi-anvil phase equilibrium studies on a few Martian basalts, and found that the eclogite transformed from primitive Martian basalt is significantly less dense than the eclogite transformed from MORB. Considering the Marian ambient mantle is denser than the Earth's mantle, subduction on Mars would be more difficult than the Earth.

• Jul 2022: Jin organized/chaired the session: " Elastic and Transport Properties of Earth and Planetary Interiors" at Goldschmidt meeting this year at Hawaii. Jin presented the most recent viscosity measurements of basalt at high pressure-temperature conditions at the meeting as well.

• Jun 2022: Ming defended his PhD thesis! Rose defended her MS thesis! Congratulations!

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• May 2022: Graduation Ceremony at UNM:

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• Mar 2022: Wenyi and Ming conducted Synchron beamtime experiments at HPCAT, APS.

• Jan 2022: Wenyi's 3rd paper "Constraining Composition and Temperature Variations in the Mantle Transition Zone" was accepted for publication on Nature Communications. Wenyi conducted Brillouin spectroscopy experiments on wadselyite at simultaneously high P-T conditions and then modeled the composition, temperature effect on the Vp and Vs of wadsleyite. Combined with  the seismic observations of 410 topography, Vp and Vs tomography in the upper MTZ, we established the first 2D petrological model of the Earth's upper MTZ, and also showed the large Temperature and water content variations inside the Earth. Pyrolite model does not work for every location in the Earth's interior!

• Dec 2021: Wenyi's 2nd paper "High pressure-temperature single-crystal elasticity of ringwoodite: Implications for detecting the 520 discontinuity and metastable ringwoodite at depths greater than 660 km" was accepted for publication on Earth and Planetary Science Letters. Wenyi conducted Brillouin spectroscopy experiments on Ringwoodite at simultaneously high P-T conditions and then modeled the composition effect on the detectability of the 520 discontinuity, and also explored the seismic properties of metastable ringwoodite at depths greater than 660km. She found that compared with metastable olivine, metastable ringwoodite is significantly more difficult to detect due to the smaller seismic contrast and volumetric proportion.  

• Dec 2021: Wenyi, Rose, Jin, Lacy, and Ming conducted Synchron beamtime experiments at Sector 3 and GSECARS at APS, ANL.

• Nov 2021: Wenyi and Ming conducted Synchron beamtime experiments at HPCAT, APS.

• Nov 2021: "Grain size dependent high-pressure elastic properties of ultrafine micro/nanocrystalline grossular" by Jin Zhang et al. was accepted for publication on Scientific Reports.

• Sep 2021: Wenyi Ming Rose Lacy and Jin attended GSECARS/COMPRES workshop: Advances in synchrotron-based research towards understanding the structure, evolution, and dynamics of Earth and planetary interiors. Jin gave an invited talk "Toward quantitative understanding of the volatile storage and transport in the Earth’s interior," and modulated the discussion for the Elastic properties and spectroscopy.

• Aug 2021: Lacy joined the group as an MS student! Welcome!

• Aug 2021: Wenyi Ming Rose and Jin attended COMPRES annual meeting, Wenyi and Rosegave oral presentation about their research at COMPRES annual meeting focusing on "Large composition and temperature variation in the Mantle transition zone," and "Deformation behavior and textures of antigorite+ olivine at mantle wedge conditions".

• Aug 2021: Wenyi gave oral presentation at Z Fundamental Science Program Workshop "Constraining the composition and temperature variations in the Mantle Transition Zone".

• Jun-Jul 2021: Multiple beamtime experiments (Ming, Wenyi, Charin, Rose) at HPCAT and GSECARS, APS, ANL through remote control.

• May 2021: After more 14 months, the lab finally resumed its normal working schedule. 

• May 2021:  Jin gave a COMPRES distinguished Lecture at GFZ Helmholtz Centre, Potsdam, Germany: "Chemical mixing and mantle convection driven (or hindered) by eclogite in the terrestrial planets" 

• May 2021: Paper "Localized anisotropy in the mantle transition zone due to flow through slab gaps" accepted for publication at Geophysical Research Letters. Jin collaborated with the seismology group to look at the strong anisotropy observed in Pacific NW, which is probably caused by the strong flow through the slab gaps underneath.

• May 2021: Wenyi's 1st paper was accepted by Earth and Planetary Science Letters: "The H2O-Fe#-Pressure dependent single-crystal elastic properties of wadsleyite: Implications for the seismic anisotropy in the upper Mantle Transition Zone". Wenyi modeled the effect of water, Fe, and pressure on the elastic anisotropy of wadsleyite based on her new measurements as well as all previous studies, and then combined the single-crystal elasticity with lattice preferred orientation data of wadsleyite to model the realistic seismic anisotropy that can be produced by wadsleyite in the upper mantle transition zone. Her work sheds new light on the explanation of the seismic anisotropy observed in the mantle transition zone. Congratulations! Wenyi!

• Apr 2021: Ming published his 4th 1st author paper "Seismic visibility of eclogite in the Earth’s upper mantle – implications from high pressure-temperature single-crystal elasticity of omphacite" in Journal of Geophysical Research, his work provides the first high pressure-temperature elasticity dataset for omphacite under upper mantle conditions. Congratulations, Ming!

• Apr 2021: Mingqiang's paper accepted by American Mineralogist: "Effect of structural water on the elasticity of orthopyroxene". 

• Feb-Mar 2021: Multiple beamtime experiments at HPCAT and GSECARS, APS, ANL through remote control. A million thanks to the supporting beamline scientists!

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• Mar 2021: Jin gave an oral presentation at 51th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, the title is "Plate Tectonics on Mars Hindered by Buoyant Martian Eclogite".

• Feb 2021: Jin gave the Smith Lecture at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: "Chemical mixing and mantle convection driven (or hindered) by eclogite in the terrestrial planets" 

• Dec 2020: Wenyi and Jin attended AGU, Wenyi gave an oral presentation "Anisotropy of the upper Mantle Transition Zone constrained from the first experimentally determined high P-T single-crystal elasticity data of wadsleyite".

• Aug 2020: Wenyi, Ming and Jin attended COMPRES annual meeting, Ming and Wenyi gave oral presentations focusing on their work on ompacite and wadselyite. 

• Jul 2020: Partial lab access resumed for students. 

• Jun 2020: Paper "Externally-heated diamond anvil cell for synthesis and elasticity determination of single-crystal ice at high pressure-temperature condition" accepted for publication at Journal of Visual Experiments.

• May 2020: Ming's 3rd 1st-author paper was accepted by Earth and Planetary Science Letters: "The seismically fastest chemical heterogeneity in the Earth’s deep upper mantle—implications from single-crystal thermal elastic properties of jadeite" Congratulations! Ming!

• Mar 2020: COVID pandemic started - No lab access for all students.

• Feb 2020: Jin gave an invited talk at University of Missouri, Columbia: "Hunting for the compositional heterogeneities in the Earth’s mantle: insights from minerals’ elastic anisotropy" 

• Dec 2019: Ming and Jin attended AGU, Ming presented his poster on omphacite, and Jin gave a talk "Systematic analysis of the single-crystal elastic properties of wadsleyite in the Fe-H2O%-Pressure 4D space"