A key question related to the budgets and distribution of life-essential elements in the modern Earth is how they got established and changed through time. Did the Earth acquire the volatiles and achieve their present distribution between the surface and the interior at the time of birth, i.e., at the main phase of accretion and growth, or is the present day budget (including ocean and atmosphere) shaped by later processes, such as late addition of materials (e.g., meteorites, comets)? Similarly, how did the surface chemistry of the planet such as carbon dioxide or oxygen content in the atmosphere, evolved from the Hadean through Phanerozoic and what roles, if any, Earth’s deep processes may have played in dictating it.

Our recent efforts are constraining the fate of life-essential volatile elements (e.g., C, N, S) during accretion and core-formation process of Earth (e.g., Dasgupta et al., 2013 – GCA; Li et al., 2016). Similarly, we also are investigating how Earth’s plate tectonic cycles may have modulated the surface-interior cycles of key elements such as carbon how such cycles might have had played a role in various deep time warm periods and oxygenation of the surface environment (e.g., Dasgupta, 2013 – RiMG; Duncan and Dasgupta, 2017 – Nat Geosci; Carter and Dasgupta, 2018 – Chem Geol).