Scientist put the pressure on, turn up the heat to study early Earth

European scientists say they've recreated conditions of early Earth to glean clues from volcanic rock about how the planet evolved billions of years ago. Researchers are seeking answers to how the planet's core and crust took shape and how its volcanic activity developed. Much of Earth was molten when the planet was formed around 4.5 billion years ago and the crust was formed as lava cooled. Basalt, the material that forms from cooling lava, can reveal a timeline of how the planet and its atmosphere were formed, researchers said. A European team of scientists, including researchers at the University of Edinburgh, have recreated in a laboratory conditions at Earth's core by placing basalt under pressures equivalent to almost 1 billion times that of Earth's atmosphere and temperatures above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. At those pressures and temperatures, they found, silicon atoms in the basalt changed the way they formed bonds, resulting in a denser magma. The findings help show how magma behaves deep inside the planet and help in understanding how Earth's core formed, the researchers said. "Modern labs make it possible for scientists to recreate conditions deep in the Earth's core, and give us valuable insight into how materials behave at such extremes," Chrystele Sanloup, of Edinburgh's School of Physics and Astronomy said. "This helps us build on what we already know about how Earth formed."