Michael J. Walter is an American experimental

petrologist Petrology () is the branch of geology that studies rocks and the conditions under which they form. Petrology has three subdivisions: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology. Igneous and metamorphic petrology are commonly taught together ...

at Earth and Planetary Laboratory (EPL, formally Geophysical Lab and Department of Terrestrial

Magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...

) of the

Carnegie Institution of Washington The Carnegie Institution of Washington (the organization's legal name), known also for public purposes as the Carnegie Institution for Science (CIS), is an organization in the United States established to fund and perform scientific research. Th ...

. He is also the director of EPL. He was on Editorial Board of JGR: Solid Earth from 2012 to 2018. Michael studies how rocks behave when transported to deep Earth interiors and associated elemental behaviors. He also uses super-deep diamonds to study the how Earth's mantle works.

Research

Walter uses experimental petrology to research on early

Earth's history The history of Earth concerns the development of planet Earth from its formation to the present day. Nearly all branches of natural science have contributed to understanding of the main events of Earth's past, characterized by constant geologic ...

, when the planet just formed from

accretion Accretion may refer to: Science * Accretion (astrophysics), the formation of planets and other bodies by collection of material through gravity * Accretion (meteorology), the process by which water vapor in clouds forms water droplets around nucl ...

of the cloud of gas and dust surrounding our young Sun, and when distinct layers of Earth's

mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...

and

core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the central ...

start to take shape. He also investigates physical properties of deep materials in Earth's interior, focusing on extracting information about mantle conditions from tiny compositional variations preserved inside diamonds.

References

American geophysicists Geology award winners University of Texas at Dallas alumni University of Nebraska alumni Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Year of birth missing (living people) Living people {{US-geologist-stub