Sept. 17, 2025

Earth's Metal Recipe: Tectonics and the Supercontinent Split

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of SpaceTime, we uncover the secrets of ancient geology, explore the watery past of an asteroid, and delve into the origins of globular clusters.
Supercontinent Breakup Revealed
Scientists have made significant strides in understanding the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia, which occurred over 800 million years ago. Research conducted on rare minerals in Outback Australia has revealed how niobium-rich carbonatites rose through fault zones during tectonic rifting, providing insights into the geological processes that shaped our planet. These findings not only illuminate the history of Rodinia but also highlight the importance of niobium in modern technologies, such as electric vehicles and advanced alloys.
Water Activity on Asteroid Richie
Exciting new research confirms that liquid water once flowed on the parent body of the near-Earth asteroid Richie, challenging previous assumptions about water activity on asteroids. Analysis of rock samples returned by Japan's Hayabusa2 mission has shown evidence of water movement through Ryugu's rocks, indicating that carbon-rich asteroids may have played a more significant role in delivering water to Earth than previously thought. This discovery has profound implications for our understanding of planetary formation and the conditions that made Earth habitable.
Origins of Globular Clusters
Astronomers are closer to solving the mystery of globular clusters, dense stellar systems that have puzzled scientists for centuries. Recent high-resolution computer simulations have revealed multiple pathways for their formation, suggesting that some may originate from satellite dwarf galaxies stripped of their outer stars during galactic mergers. This breakthrough could lead to new insights into dark matter and the formation of the universe's earliest stars.
www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
✍️ Episode References
Geological Magazine
https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/tgeo20
Nature
https://www.nature.com/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/spacetime-space-astronomy--2458531/support.
Supercontinent Breakup Revealed
Water Activity on Asteroid Richie
Origins of Globular Clusters

The Astronomy, Space, Technology & Science News Podcast.

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This Is Spacetime Series twenty eight, Episode one hundred and

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twelve were broadcast on the seventeenth of September twenty twenty five.

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Coming up on Space Time, ancient rocks revealing how a

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super continent broke apart, scientists confirm water once flowed on

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the asteroid Ryugu, and a new study trying to pin

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down the origins of globular clusters. All that and more

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coming up on space Time.

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Welcome to space Time with Stuart Gary.

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Scientists examining rare minerals found in outback Australia have shown

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how huge tectonic forces so we are apart the super

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continent of Rdinia more than eight hundred million years ago.

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The findings were reported in the journal Geological Magazine, are

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shedding new light on how rare metal rich magmas reached

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the planet's surface. The authors show that niobian rich carbonatites

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rose up from deep within the planet through pre existing

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full zones during a tectonic rifting event between eight hundred

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and thirty and eight hundred and twenty million years ago,

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and that ultimately broke up the super continent Redinia. Carbonatites

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are rare igneous rocks known to host major global deposits

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of critical metals such as niobium and rare earth elements.

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Niobium is a strategic metal vital for producing light, high

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strength steel used in aircraft construction, as well as pipelines,

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electric vehicles, and as a key component in some next

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generation batteries, in superconducting technologies and clean energy production. One

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of the studies authors, Chris Kirklan from Curtain University, says

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these carbonatites are unlike anything previously known in the Aileron

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Province and they contain important concentrations of niobium, but by

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detecting when and how they formed has historically been difficult

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due to their complex geological histories. The Aleron Province is

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located near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Kirkland and

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colleagues used multiple isotobe dating techniques and drill call carbonatite

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samples that had been in place during a period of

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continental rifting which preceded the breakup of Rhdinia. By analyzing

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isotopes and using higher resolution imaging, they were able to

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reconstruct more than five hundred million years of geological events

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the rocks had experienced. They found the tectonic setting allowed

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carbonatite magmas to rise through the fault zones. These fault

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zones had remained open and active for hundreds of millions

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of years, delivering metal rich melts from deep within the

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planet's mantle up into its crust. Kirkland says this approach

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allowed him and his colleagues to pinpoint where the carbonatites

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formed and separate those original magnetic events from changes that

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happened later in the rocks.

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Rudineas what's known as a super continent. So that's a

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period of time when all the continental fragments of Earth

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were really all joined together and stop together. So you

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can think, you know, at the minute, we've got Africa

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and America. You can see, you know, the outline of

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those continents kind of looked like they're pretty similar. So

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if we rule back time, those continental fragments would have

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come together. So Rodinia is a super continent about one

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billion years ago. So one billion years ago we had

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the super continent, this aggregation of all these fragments of

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crust on our planet, and it's quite important geologically.

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And as continental drift happened, tectonics took over and Redinea

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split apart about eight hundred and thirty eight hundred and

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twenty million years ago and there's some interesting evidence of that.

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Yeah, that's exactly right. So three time, you know, super

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continents come together and then they break up. But when

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they break up, interesting things happen with the rocks. You know,

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we get more manful material rising through the crassons that

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ass and it brings with it metals and that's kind

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of important for us going exploring to look for certain resources.

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So specific types of rocks. One specific type of rocks

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known as a carbonotype because it's a carbonet magma typically

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is associated with breakup. So Rodinia was breaking up about

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eight hundred and thirty million years ago and that breakup

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event brought metals up from the mantle. And that's a

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pretty interesting process because it helps us go and explore

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for rocks and metals. So we looked at these carbonotypes,

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the rocks from right at the center of Australia. But

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they've previously been looked at, but they're actually really challenging

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to understand their age. But using a range of different

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minerals and isotopic technique, we managed to get an age

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out of them at eight hundred and thirty million years,

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and as we said, that's an important time in Earth

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history because it tells us about the breakup of Rudinia.

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And that's interesting because at that time we also note

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that there's nilobium bearing rocks. So these carbonotypes are bringing

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metals with them, and those metals, we think are being

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formed at the same time, so they're being brought out

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of the mantle and placed into the crust. And that

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that's useful knife because we've got a recipe, if you like,

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for a mineral system, so it helps us to go

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and explore for these other niobium bearing rocks, which is

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an important metal for you know, high strength schemes advanced

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down in green technology like that electric vehicle batteries and

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wind turbines for example, they all the lion niobium. So

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having this recipe for this metal is kind of important

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to help us find more of it.

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Do we know how the metals may deep underground?

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Most metals sink, right, you know, we've got a magnum

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that creates a process where you've got fractionate material, so

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white material will rise up and heavy material will sink die,

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so the mantle becomes more concentrated in metals than one

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of them is niobium. So when you have rifting events

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and that's when magmas are rising up from the mantil,

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it actually provides a mechanism for transferring some of these

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concentrated metals deep in our planets upwards into the crust

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where we can access them. And what specifically interesting is

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these urbonotype melt are very reactive. They're chemically strange rocks,

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so they react quite strongly. They dissolve crystals, but then

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they re precipitate them or redrow them again and in

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that process they drop out the metal into a range

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of different minerals, including one that's named a pyrochlore, and

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that's part of the process that enriches the rocks in metal.

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The entire Western Australian region is an absolute playground or

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new metals and unique geology, isn't it.

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Yeah, that's exactly right. I think there's a number of

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different reasons for that. So one is that through time,

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you know, you get different types of metal deposits forming,

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So gold, for example, tends to be concentrated in really

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old blocks of crust, and then you might get events

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that circulate water and fluid through those rocks when they

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tend to enrich things like gold. But then we have

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other mineral systems which are formed in a different way.

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For example, when we're getting mantle upwelling events like we've

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just been talking about it, like rifting, and those sorts

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of events would happen away from the older blocks. They

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can to occur in slightly younger rocks. I play slightly younger, right,

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We're talking about a process eight hundred and thirty million

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years ago. That's actually quite young for West Australia, where

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we've got these really truly ancient it is across most

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of the yields aren't. For example, is about two point

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six billion years old. That's much much older. But it's

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about having this huge amount of time and this ability

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for and then fluids to interact with each other that

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allows us to have these enrichment events creating all these

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metals that we need for our society at different points

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in time.

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We see this on the surface in the jagged remains

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of these giant cratons.

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Yeah, we do, We absolutely do. So you can find

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lots of interesting rocks on the surface. But of course,

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when you want to fight a mind, you need to

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look at things in three dimensions. So that's when you

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start to think about drill core and exploring for rocks

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deeper under the cover, and that's where we use drill core,

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and we look at those drill courts to understand the

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size and the volumes of rocks that are carrying these metals.

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So it's not just about the exposed rock, it's about

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predicting in if you like three dimensions where these volumes

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of rock occur.

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The size of these features is incredible.

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Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, there's these fantastic geophysical maps

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that alliaus to kind of image through the subsurface, and

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there's geological structures that run all the way through our continent.

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It's quite remarkable. There's even one actually very close to

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where you're talking about that runs almost north Spout and

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it looks as if it's a massive, big crack through

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our entire confidence and the reality of that is, well,

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it kind of was. You know, we have these big

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structures that are where the crack arms broke apart and

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came back together again, and those cracks are the exact

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places we have fluid. When geologists talk about fluids, they

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mean magmas, but they also need water circulation as well.

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But they mean silica rock circulation, so magmas and they

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were pumping up along these long lived deep fracture systems.

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These fracture systems can be so huge they tap all

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the way to the mantle. So they're not just surface features.

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These are deep features that really tell us about heart

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planet was put together, and they're the exact places we

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might get metals enrich so planet it's very important for

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carrying out exploration.

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That's Professor Chris Kirkland from Curtain University. And this is

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space time. Still the CAM siders confirmed that water once

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flowed across the asteroid Ryegu, and we look at the

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possible origins of popular clusters. All that and more still

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to come on space time, scientists have shown that liquid

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water once flowed on the parent body which spawned the

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nearest astroid Ryuga, more than a billion years after it

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first formed. The findings, reported in the journal Nature, could

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impact current models of planetary formation, including those describing the

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birth of the Earth, and the study also overturned some

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long held assumptions that water activity on asteroids only occur

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during the earliest moments of the Solar System's history. And

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your results are based on tiny rock fragments of asteroid

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returned by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration agencies hya BUSA two spacecraft,

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which visited Ryugo on a sample return mission back in

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twenty eighteen. The studies lead author so Yoshi Izuka from

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the University of Tokyo. Astronomers already have a relatively good

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understanding of how our solar system formed, but there are

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still gaps, including knowledge of how the Earth can to

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possessed so much water. Now, it's long been hypothesized the

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carbonaceous asteroids like Ryugu, which formed from ISOs and dust

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in the art of solar system, could be one potential

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source of Earth's water. A zuclin colleagues found that Rayugu

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preserved a pristine record of water activity, evidence that fluids

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were moving through its rocks far later than expected, and

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this changes how astronomers think about the long term fate

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of water in asteroids. The heart of the discovery comes

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from an analysis of isotopes of lutetium and hafnium. Is

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radioactive decay from the tetium one seventy six into hafnium

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one seventy six can serve as a sort of clock

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for measuring geological processes. Their presence in specific quantities in

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the sample studied were expected to relate to the age

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of the asteroid in a fairly predictable way, but the

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ratio of the tetium one seventy six to happenium one

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seventy six was farhigher than expected, and this strongly implied

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that some sort of fluid, probably water, was essentially washing

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out the the tetium from the rocks containing it. Now

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the most likely trigger for all of this was an

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impact on the larger parent asteroid of Ryugu, which fractured

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the rock, generating heat and melting the buried ice. This

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allowed the liquid water to percolate through the body, and

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the same impact may well have been responsible for creating

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Rayugu out of its parent asteroid in the first place.

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One of the most important implications for all this is

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that carbon riche asteroids may have contained and delivered much

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more of Earth's water previously thought. It seems Roheugue's parent

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body retained ice for more than a billion years, meaning

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similar bodies striking a young Earth they will have carried

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an estimated two to three times more water than what

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standard models currently account for, significantly affecting Earth's early oceans

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and atmosphere. It suggests that the building blocks of Earth

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were far wetter than previously imagined, and it forced the

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scientists to rethink this starting conditions for Earth's water system

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and how and when our planet first became habitable. This

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is space time still to come. We look at the

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possible origins of those mysterious objects called globular clusters, and

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later in the Science report and you study finds that

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the more psychiatric disorders you have in later life, the

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more likely you are to develop dementia. All that and

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more still to come on space time. For centuries, astronomers

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have puzzled over the origins of some of the universe's

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oldest and dens estellar systems, known as globular clusters, and

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now they may finally have an answer. Globular clusters are

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stellar spheres containing thousands to millions of densely packed, gravitationally

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bound stars. The stars in globular clusters all have a

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similar chemical composition that suggests they were all originally born

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at the same time in the same stellar nursery of

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molecular gas and dust clouds. Most galaxies have large collections

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of globular clusters, orbiting them. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way,

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has at least one hundred and fifty, and a neighboring

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big galaxy, Andromeda, has more than two hundred. But that

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also opens the possibility that at least some globular clusters

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I in fact the stellar cause of satellite dwarf galaxies,

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which were stripped of their outer stars during mergers with

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host galaxies in a process called galactic cannibalism. Now a

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report in the journal Nature may finally have solved the mystery,

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suggesting both options are possible. The new detailed computer simulations

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also uncovered a new class of stellar objects which may

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already be in our galaxy, globular cluster. Like dwarves. Now,

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unlike galaxies, globular clusters show no evidence of dark matter,

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and their stars are unusually uniform in age and chemical

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composition traits, which have left scientists debating their formation since

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their discovery back in the seventeenth century. The new ultra

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high resolution computer simulations, known as EDGE, can trace the

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universe's thirteen point eight billion year history in unprecedented detail,

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and that allows scientists to watch globular clusters form in

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virtual real time in a virtual cosmos, and the simulations

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found muliple pathways for the creation of globular clusters and

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unexpectedly the emergence of a new class of star system

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globular cluster like dwarves stellar constellations that, in terms of

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their properties, sits somewhere between globular clusters and dwarf galaxies.

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The studies lead author Ethan Taylor from the University of

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Surrey says the formation of globular custers has been a

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mystery for hundreds of years, so Tenlor and colleagues use

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the UK's direct National Supercomputer Facility to run the edge

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simulations over several years. Conventional dwarf galaxies are typically dominated

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by dark matter, with around a thousand times more of

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this mysterious substance than stars and gas combined. However, the

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newly identified globebular cluster like dwarves appear similar to regular

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star clusters when observed, yet still contain a significant amount

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of dark matter. That means that telescopes may already have

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found them in the real universe but classified them as

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regular globular clusters, and this small difference places them in

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a unique position to study both dark matter and globular

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cluster formation, and several known Milky wayt satellite galaxies, such

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as the ultra faint dwarf galaxy Reticulum two, are likely candidates.

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If confirmed, they could become prime sites in the search

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for pristine metal free stars born in the early universe,

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as well as new locations to test models for the

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ever ellusive dark matter. At a resolution of ten light

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years fine enough to capture the effects of individual supernovae,

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the authors were able to show that globular clusters can

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form in at least two different ways, both without dark matter.

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The next step is to confirm the existence of these

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globular cluster like dwarves through targeted observations with telescopes including

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the web Space Telescope and upcoming deep spectroscopic surveys. If

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they do, it could give astronomers new ways to test

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dark matter theories and offer some of the best chances

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yet to find the universe's very first generation of metal

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free stars this space Time and time. That'll take another

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brief look at some of the other stories making news

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in science this week with the Science Report. A new

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study has found that the more co occurring psychiatric disorders

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you have in older age, the more likely you are

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to develop dementia. The findings, reported in the British Medical Journal,

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compared dementia diagnosis among patients aged forty five and over

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based on how many psychiatric diagnoses they had, compared to

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patients with a single disorder. The authors said the odds

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of developing dementia were more than doubled for those with

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two disorders and eleven times high for those with four

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or more. They say it's possible that the presence of

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modible psychiatric disorders could be in early sight of dementia

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rather than a cause of the condition. Boeing and the

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Australian Air Force have completed the maiden test flight trials

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of the new MQ twenty eight Ghost Spat a manned

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stealth fighter, four months ahead of schedule. The multi roll

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aircraft are designed as a force multiplier, working with the

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F thirty five Lightning two stealth fighters and the FA

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eighteen Super Hornet Fighters, as well as E seven, a

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Wedgetail airborne early warning control aircraft. The test flights were

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run out of the Woma A Rocket Range in out

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back South Australia and from the Tindall Air Force Space

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in the northern territory. The validation flights tested the unmanned

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combat aerial vehicles in realistic battle scenarios, including autonomous missions

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and their ability to operate effectively alongside manned aircraft. They

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are also deployed in coordinator operations with modible ghost Bats.

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The MQ twenty eight also demonstration to advanced data sharing

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capabilities between crude and uncruded platforms, enhancing situational awareness. Each

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aircraft can carry two internally mounted AIM one twenty advanced

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medium Range airware missiles and are equipped with a range

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of sensors including infrared search and track systems and air

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away refueling capabilities also being looked at in order to

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extend their range from the current three thy seven hundred

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kilometers as well as the Austraan Air Force. The Ghostbats

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also being looked at by the Pentagon of possible deployment

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with F fifty Ex Eagle two fighters as additional sensor

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nodes help find and target hostile air offense systems. Scientists

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are found that there are no plant based food for

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dogs sold in the United Kingdom which meet the nutritional

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guidelines for Man's Best Friend's health. They say, if you've

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got your dog on a plant based diet, you need

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to add supplements in order to fill the gaps. A

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report in the General Plus one analyzed the nutrient content

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of thirty one dry dog foods that were labeled as complete,

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which included nineteen meat based foods, six plant based diets,

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and six veterinary foods designed to be low in protein

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for dogs with kidney issues. The authors found that the

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meat and plant based foods had similar nutritional profiles when

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it came to proteins and amino acids, but the plant

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based foods typically didn't meet the guidelines for iodine and

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vitamin B levels, which adult dogs need. It's important to

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also note that none of the foods they tested completely

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met the standards for all nutrients needed by adult dogs,

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but in many instances these missing nutrients can be added

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in supplements or from changes to formulation by the pet

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food manufacturers if they're willing to put the animal's nutrition

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above profits. Apple have just released their new thinner, tougher

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and high capacity iPhone seventeen, but there's still no folk version,

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and AI remains an issue with the details which joined

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by Technology editor Alex Aharovroyt from Tech Advice Start Life.

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Well, we've seen in recent times Samsung launchest new phones,

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Google launches new phone and they've both tried very hard

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to gazump Apple by launching technologies that should be better

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than what Apple is launching. But Apple is now launched,

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and we've seen new iPhones, new watches, new headphones, and

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new capabilities. Now let's start with the iPhone seventeen Air,

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which I just called. The iPhone Air is five point

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six millimeters thin, which is point two of a millimeter

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thinner than Samsung's S twenty five Edge. And look, although

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iPhone and Apple users are going to say that the

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iPhone Air is better, Samsung really did come out with

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it a couple of months ago or three or four

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months ago, and they have two cameras on the back

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of just one, there's this five point eight millimeters so

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a little bit thicker, but no one's going to really

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notice that much of a different. It is supposed to

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be the most durable phone that Apple has made, and

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all day battery life even though it's got clearly a

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smaller battery inside. And I noticed that when they launched

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the all day battery life claim. In the next scene,

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they said, up and we have a maxif battery that

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connects to the back which is thinner and boosts your

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video to forty hours. So clearly it's going to have

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less battery life. But if you like me and already

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carrying around a spare battery for your iPhone sixteen Promax

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that has it much bigger battery, well nothing's going to change.

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I'm going to still have to carry around a battery.

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The iPhone seventeen and seventeen Pro and Promax obviously improvements

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with cameras and processes and ceramic glass all very impressive.

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I think one of the cool things with the Promax

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is that now comes in a two terabyte configuration in Australia.

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That's going to take you to three thy, seven hundred

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and ninety nine dollars, So you're paying a lot of

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money for that extra space.

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Want of space, Let's be honest, Well, your photos are

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building up, your music's building up. You need the extra capacity.

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Well, as we all know, space is the final frontier

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and most people buy a smaller iPhone and they regret it.

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Now we also have the new watches. The se Watch,

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the cheapest one is now always on for the first time.

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The series eleven is thinner than before, and the Ultra

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three has got a slightly bigger screen in the same

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size case. The last two have five G not just

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four G, and the last two can also do hypertension detection.

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That's not blood pressure monitoring in the sense that you

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have a cuff that blows up like you have with

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the Quawai blood pressure watch, but over the course of

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time it can detect whether you have hypertension or not

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if you switch that feature of And the Ultra three

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can now do emergency SOS. So it's the ultimate watch

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for somebody who goes out on adventures and they have

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