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Comprehensive Baseline Environmental Monitoring of an Interim Legacy Waste Store in Arid Zone Australia - 20062

Radionuclide containing soil and rubble from the clean-up of a former uranium, thorium and rare earth minerals processing research facility carried out in the early 50's and 60's is currently stored at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia awaiting final disposal. Prior to developing a final disposal pathway commensurate with waste acceptance criteria, a comprehensive baseline environmental monitoring has been carried out to establish the background radiation levels. The survey included in situ gamma scanning of the surface soil ({sup 238}U, {sup 232}Th, {sup 40}K), a laboratory analysis of 86 soil samples (from 0-20 cm depth), which involved XRF measurements (U, Th, and rare earth metals) and spectroscopic analysis ({sup 238}U, {sup 232}Th, {sup 226}Ra and daughter nuclides). A time series of radon concentration measurements in air was established, while soil radon ({sup 222}Rn) and thoron ({sup 220}Rn) flux measurements were undertaken at 18 different locations. The 2018 comprehensive baseline survey demonstrated radiation levels in the immediate vicinity of the Woomera interim waste store are typical background values of soil and rock. No contamination was detected. (authors)

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE W↗

Solar wind contributions to Earth’s oceans

The isotopic composition of water in Earth’s oceans is challenging to recreate using a plausible mixture of known extraterrestrial sources such as asteroids—an additional isotopically light reservoir is required. The Sun’s solar wind could provide an answer to balance Earth’s water budget. Here, we used atom probe tomography to directly observe an average ~1 mol% enrichment in water and hydroxyls in the solar-wind-irradiated rim of an olivine grain from the S-type asteroid Itokawa. We also experimentally confirm that H + irradiation of silicate mineral surfaces produces water molecules. These results suggest that the Itokawa regolith could contain ~20 l m -3 of solar-wind-derived water and that such water reservoirs are probably ubiquitous on airless worlds throughout our Galaxy. The production of this isotopically light water reservoir by solar wind implantation into fine-grained silicates may have been a particularly important process in the early Solar System, potentially providing a means to recreate Earth’s current water isotope ratios.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Structural evolution of liquid silicates under conditions in Super-Earth interiors

Molten silicates at depth are crucial for planetary evolution, yet their local structure and physical properties under extreme conditions remain elusive due to experimental challenges. In this study, we utilize in situ X-ray diffraction (XRD) at the Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) end-station of the Linear Coherent Linac Source (LCLS) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to investigate liquid silicates. Using an ultrabright X-ray source and a high-power optical laser, we probed the local atomic arrangement of shock-compressed liquid (Mg,Fe)SiO 3 with varying Fe content, at pressures from 81(9) to 385(40) GPa. We compared these findings to ab initio molecular dynamics simulations under similar conditions. Results indicate continuous densification of theO-O and Mg-Si networks beyond Earth’s interior pressure range, potentially altering melt properties at extreme conditions. This could have significant implications for early planetary evolution, leading to notable differences in differentiation processes between smaller rocky planets, such as Earth and Venus, and super-Earths, which are exoplanets withmasses nearly three times that of Earth.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Over three decades, and counting, of near-surface turbulent flux measurements from the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility

Processes mediating the coupling of terrestrial, aquatic, biospheric, and atmospheric systems influence weather, climate, and ecosystem dynamics via transfer of energy, momentum, water, and carbon (or other species). These exchange processes are quantified by measurements of near-surface turbulent fluxes. Understanding processes at these interfaces provides insight toward understanding and predicting current and future states within the Earth system. The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility has been conducting measurements of near-surface turbulent fluxes since the early 1990s at long-term fixed locations and shorter-term mobile deployments across the Earth. ARM has utilized two established methods for conducting these measurements: energy balance Bowen ratio (EBBR) and eddy covariance (EC). Primary measurements from the former include sensible and latent heat flux, while the latter also measures fluxes of momentum and carbon (primarily carbon dioxide, with methane fluxes measured at two locations to date). The EBBR systems have been deployed at 22 locations, and, to date, the EC systems have been deployed at over 50 sites, with plans for additional novel site locations in the future. Herein, the history, evolution, and key aspects of these instrument systems are documented, along with information on data quality assurance and post-processing, as well as best use practices. Additionally, three data validation experiments were recently conducted, and their key findings are summarized. Finally, ancillary datasets acquired by ARM, which can contextualize and aid interpretation of the near-surface turbulent flux measurements, are discussed. The datasets described herein include the eddy correlation flux measurement system: 30ECOR (https://doi.org/10.5439/1879993, Sullivan et al., 1997), 30QCECOR (https://doi.org/10.5439/1097546, Gaustad, 2003), ECORSF (https://doi.org/10.5439/1494128, Sullivan et al., 2019a), and associated AmeriFlux and Methane Value-Added Product, AMCMETHANE (https://doi.org/10.5439/1508268, Billesbach, 2011); the energy balance Bowen ratio system: 30EBBR (https://doi.org/10.5439/1023895, Sullivan et al., 1993) and 30BAEBBR (https://doi.org/10.5439/1027268, Gaustad and Xie, 1993); and the carbon dioxide flux measurement system: CO2FLX (https://doi.org/10.5439/1287574, https://doi.org/10.5439/1287575, https://doi.org/10.5439/1287576, Koontz et al., 2015a, b, c; https://doi.org/10.5439/1989774, https://doi.org/10.5439/1989776, https://doi.org/10.5439/1992202, Biraud and Chan, 2002a, b, c). These data can be found by searching the above data stream names at https://adc.arm.gov/discovery/#/results/ (last access: 8 September 2025).

Sullivan, Ryan C. [Argonne National Laboratory (AN↗

Reconciling evidence of oxidative weathering and atmospheric anoxia on Archean Earth

Evidence continues to emerge for the production and low-level accumulation of molecular oxygen (O 2 ) at Earth’s surface before the Great Oxidation Event. Quantifying this early O 2 has proven difficult. Here, we use the distribution and isotopic composition of molybdenum in the ancient sedimentary record to quantify Archean Mo cycling, which allows us to calculate lower limits for atmospheric O 2 partial pressures ( P O 2 ) and O 2 production fluxes during the Archean. We consider two end-member scenarios. First, if O 2 was evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere, then P O 2 > 10 –6.9 present atmospheric level was required for large periods of time during the Archean eon. Alternatively, if O 2 accumulation was instead spatially restricted (e.g., occurring only near the sites of O 2 production), then O 2 production fluxes >0.01 Tmol O 2 /year were required. Archean O 2 levels were vanishingly low according to our calculations but substantially above those predicted for an abiotic Earth system.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Massive formation of early diagenetic dolomite in the Ediacaran ocean: Constraints on the “dolomite problem”

Paleozoic and Precambrian sedimentary successions frequently contain massive dolomicrite [CaMg(CO 3 ) 2 ] units despite kinetic inhibitions to nucleation and precipitation of dolomite at Earth surface temperatures (<60 °C). This paradoxical observation is known as the “dolomite problem.” Accordingly, the genesis of these dolostones is usually attributed to burial–hydrothermal dolomitization of primary limestones (CaCO 3 ) at temperatures of >100 °C, thus raising doubt about the validity of these deposits as archives of Earth surface environments. We present a high-resolution, >63-My-long clumped-isotope temperature (T Δ47 ) record of shallow-marine dolomicrites from two drillcores of the Ediacaran (635 to 541 Ma) Doushantuo Formation in South China. Our T ∆47 record indicates that a majority (87%) of these dolostones formed at temperatures of <100 °C. When considering the regional thermal history, modeling of the influence of solid-state reordering on our T Δ47 record further suggests that most of the studied dolostones formed at temperatures of <60 °C, providing direct evidence of a low-temperature origin of these dolostones. Furthermore, calculated δ 18 O values of diagenetic fluids, rare earth element plus yttrium compositions, and petrographic observations of these dolostones are consistent with an early diagenetic origin in a rock-buffered environment. We thus propose that a precursor precipitate from seawater was subsequently dolomitized during early diagenesis in a near-surface setting to produce the large volume of dolostones in the Doushantuo Formation. Our findings suggest that the preponderance of dolomite in Paleozoic and Precambrian deposits likely reflects oceanic conditions specific to those eras and that dolostones can be faithful recorders of environmental conditions in the early oceans.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

No 182W evidence for early Moon formation

The Moon-forming giant impact was probably the last major event in Earth’s accretion, so dating this event is critical to determine the timeline of terrestrial planet formation. Recently, Thiemens et al. used the short-lived 182 Hf– 182 W system to argue that the Moon formed within the first 60 Myr of Solar System history. Here we demonstrate, however, that mixing processes during and after the giant impact modified the 182W compositions of the Earth and Moon, which hampers the use of the Hf–W system to date the Moon. Our results show that the lunar 182 W record is fully consistent with a recently determined, younger age of the Moon of 142 ± 25 Myr after Solar System formation.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Atmospheric Escape From TOI-700 d: Venus versus Earth Analogs

The recent discovery of an Earth-sized planet (TOI-700 d) in the habitable zone of an early-type M-dwarf by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite constitutes an important advance. In this Letter, we assess the feasibility of this planet to retain an atmosphere – one of the chief ingredients for surface habitability – over long timescales by employing state-of-the-art magnetohydrodynamic models to simulate the stellar wind and the associated rates of atmospheric escape. We take two major factors into consideration, namely, the planetary atmospheric composition and magnetic field. In all cases, we determine that the atmospheric ion escape rates are potentially a few orders of magnitude higher than the inner Solar system planets, but TOI-700 d is nevertheless capable of retaining a 1 bar atmosphere over gigayear timescales for certain regions of the parameter space. The simulations show that the unmagnetized TOI-700 d with a 1 bar Earth-like atmosphere could be stripped away rather quickly (< 1 gigayear), while the unmagnetized TOI-700 d with a 1 bar CO 2 -dominated atmosphere could persist for many billions of years; we find that the magnetized Earth-like case falls in between these two scenarios. We also discuss the prospects for detecting radio emission of the planet (thereby constraining its magnetic field) and discerning the presence of an atmosphere.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Precursors to Extreme Wintertime Cold in the Midwest United States

ABSTRACT Cold air outbreaks (CAOs) are extreme weather events that affect millions of people every winter, including those in the US Midwest. Per our criteria (a sufficiently cold event over a wide area and a long period), we identified 43 wintertime CAOs in the Midwest region using data from 1980 to 2021 (approximately one per year). These occurred in the Midwest during three of five North American weather regimes. Two regimes' CAOs are related to a weak stratospheric polar vortex, consistent with previous research on CAOs in the neighbouring Great Plains region. A different regime, characterised by anomalous ridging along the west coast of North America, is the most common for Midwest CAOs, unlike in regions further to the west. Unlike the other two regimes, these so‐called West Coast Ridge CAOs have no clear stratospheric connection. West Coast Ridge CAOs are instead linked to tropospheric processes on synoptic timescales, usually preceded by a weaker than average mid‐tropospheric height gradient in the western Pacific about 10 days prior to CAO onset. Our results demonstrate a particular challenge for predicting some extreme events in the Midwest, with important implications for early warning systems.

Ryan, James M. [Department of Earth and Atmospheri↗

2021 Annual Report: Atmospheric Radiation Measurement

In fiscal year 2021 (FY2021), the COVID-19 pandemic continued to have an impact on activities within the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. Travel was limited, which affected field activities and forced the continuation of virtual meetings. However, the ability to travel expanded significantly through the year, bringing some return to normalcy, and throughout the year, there was a great deal of activity dedicated to advancing the facility. Because of COVID, ARM twice delayed the TRacking Aerosol Convection interactions ExpeRiment (TRACER) in the Houston, Texas, area. Originally planned to launch in the spring, TRACER started October 1, 2021, one month after the Surface Atmosphere Integrated Field Laboratory (SAIL) campaign began near Crested Butte, Colorado. ARM teams worked onsite and remotely to make sure both campaigns could launch on this new schedule that was set early in the year. Data from SAIL and TRACER will be critical to improving earth system models, each contributing to different sets of issues. SAIL measurements will provide insights into how precipitation forms and water travels through the Upper Colorado River Basin. TRACER scientists want to know whether tiny atmospheric particles can influence the severity of thunderstorms. In October 2020, the Multidisciplinary Drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition ended after 13 months. MOSAiC data from ARM and other organizations are already helping scientists better understand how ice, atmosphere, and ocean systems are connected in the central Arctic. This report discusses some early investigations from MOSAiC, along with other ARM campaigns and activities generating prolific research. In this report, you will also learn how research activities moved forward during the pandemic at ARM’s fixed-location atmospheric observatories. There were important science applications from measurements across the facility. ARM spent a significant amount of FY2021 looking back—and ahead. In November 2020, ARM had its Triennial Review. This review is held every three years to evaluate ARM’s effectiveness in science, operations, and management. Overall, the reviewers had positive feedback regarding the breadth and impact of science activities using ARM data and the way ARM strives to meet changing user needs. The reviewers also provided some recommendations for strengthening ARM going forward. Incorporating feedback from the review, we finalized an updated Decadal Vision document that will help guide ARM priorities in the coming years. This report describes the four themes driving ARM’s Decadal Vision.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Granick revisited: Synthesizing evolutionary and ecological evidence for the late origin of bacteriochlorophyll via ghost lineages and horizontal gene transfer

Photosynthesis—both oxygenic and more ancient anoxygenic forms—has fueled the bulk of primary productivity on Earth since it first evolved more than 3.4 billion years ago. However, the early evolutionary history of photosynthesis has been challenging to interpret due to the sparse, scattered distribution of metabolic pathways associated with photosynthesis, long timescales of evolution, and poor sampling of the true environmental diversity of photosynthetic bacteria. Here, we reconsider longstanding hypotheses for the evolutionary history of phototrophy by leveraging recent advances in metagenomic sequencing and phylogenetics to analyze relationships among phototrophic organisms and components of their photosynthesis pathways, including reaction centers and individual proteins and complexes involved in the multi-step synthesis of (bacterio)-chlorophyll pigments. We demonstrate that components of the photosynthetic apparatus have undergone extensive, independent histories of horizontal gene transfer. This suggests an evolutionary mode by which modular components of phototrophy are exchanged between diverse taxa in a piecemeal process that has led to biochemical innovation. We hypothesize that the evolution of extant anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria has been spurred by ecological competition and restricted niches following the evolution of oxygenic Cyanobacteria and the accumulation of O 2 in the atmosphere, leading to the relatively late evolution of bacteriochlorophyll pigments and the radiation of diverse crown group anoxygenic phototrophs. This hypothesis expands on the classic “Granick hypothesis” for the stepwise evolution of biochemical pathways, synthesizing recent expansion in our understanding of the diversity of phototrophic organisms as well as their evolving ecological context through Earth history.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Cellular remains in a ~3.42-billion-year-old subseafloor hydrothermal environment

Subsurface habitats on Earth host an extensive extant biosphere and likely provided one of Earth’s earliest microbial habitats. Though the site of life’s emergence continues to be debated, evidence of early life provides insights into its early evolution1. Here we present our discovery of exceptionally well-preserved ~3.40-billion-years-old carbonaceous filamentous microfossils that inhabited a paleo-subseafloor hydrothermal vein system of the Barberton greenstone belt (BGB) in South Africa. The distribution of the microfossils in growth position on the walls of the initial conduits created by low- temperature hydrothermal fluid and their morphological and chemical characteristics as investigated over a range of scales, are consistent with an assemblage of methanogens that thrived in an ultramafic volcanic substrate.

Cavalazzi, Barbara↗

Significant impact of forcing uncertainty in a large ensemble of climate model simulations

Forcing due to solar and volcanic variability, on the natural side, and greenhouse gas and aerosol emissions, on the anthropogenic side, are the main inputs to climate models. Reliable climate model simulations of past and future climate change depend crucially upon them. Here we analyze large ensembles of simulations using a comprehensive Earth System Model to quantify uncertainties in global climate change attributable to differences in prescribed forcings. The different forcings considered here are those used in the two most recent phases of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP), namely CMIP5 and CMIP6. We show significant differences in simulated global surface air temperature due to volcanic aerosol forcing in the second half of the 19th century and in the early 21st century. The latter arise from small-to-moderate eruptions incorporated in CMIP6 simulations but not in CMIP5 simulations. We also find significant differences in global surface air temperature and Arctic sea ice area due to anthropogenic aerosol forcing in the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century. These differences are as large as those obtained in different versions of an Earth System Model employing identical forcings. In simulations from 2015 to 2100, we find significant differences in the rates of projected global warming arising from CMIP5 and CMIP6 concentration pathways that differ slightly but are equivalent in terms of their nominal radiative forcing levels in 2100. Our results highlight the influence of assumptions about natural and anthropogenic aerosol loadings on carbon budgets, the likelihood of meeting Paris targets, and the equivalence of future forcing scenarios.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

2019 Computing Sciences Strategic Plan

Computing has transformed nearly every aspect of scientific inquiry — across disciplines and across scales — from the behavior of subatomic particles to the formation of structures in the early universe, from the assembly of the human genome to the evolution of earth systems. Over the past two decades, computing has become an integral part of how Berkeley Lab is “Bringing Science Solutions to the World.” Advances in computing and mathematics have been key, with new mathematical models of complex physical phenomena, new methods for analyzing complex data, new algorithms for accuracy and scaling and sophisticated software systems that encapsulate these techniques into open, reusable tools. The performance of NERSC computers and the ESnet network have grown by several orders of magnitude, along with our understanding of how to map scientific computations and workflows onto these systems. From research to facility operations, the passion, talent and dedication of the Computing Sciences Area staff has been the cornerstone of our success. The plan outlined in this document describes the next step in a journey to expand the influence and impact of our efforts, building an increasingly connected global enterprise for science that places more powerful instruments in the hands of scientists, along with more powerful methods and tools for modeling, analysis and prediction.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Divergent Evolution of Early Terrestrial Fungi Reveals the Evolution of Mucormycosis Pathogenicity Factors

Abstract Fungi have evolved over millions of years and their species diversity is predicted to be the second largest on the earth. Fungi have cross-kingdom interactions with many organisms that have mutually shaped their evolutionary trajectories. Zygomycete fungi hold a pivotal position in the fungal tree of life and provide important perspectives on the early evolution of fungi from aquatic to terrestrial environments. Phylogenomic analyses have found that zygomycete fungi diversified into two separate clades, the Mucoromycota which are frequently associated with plants and Zoopagomycota that are commonly animal-associated fungi. Genetic elements that contributed to the fitness and divergence of these lineages may have been shaped by the varied interactions these fungi have had with plants, animals, bacteria, and other microbes. To investigate this, we performed comparative genomic analyses of the two clades of zygomycetes in the context of Kingdom Fungi, benefiting from our generation of a new collection of zygomycete genomes, including nine produced for this study. We identified lineage-specific genomic content that may contribute to the disparate biology observed in these zygomycetes. Our findings include the discovery of undescribed diversity in CotH, a Mucormycosis pathogenicity factor, which was found in a broad set of zygomycetes. Reconciliation analysis identified multiple duplication events and an expansion of CotH copies throughout the Mucoromycotina, Mortierellomycotina, Neocallimastigomycota, and Basidiobolus lineages. A kingdom-level phylogenomic analysis also identified new evolutionary relationships within the subphyla of Mucoromycota and Zoopagomycota, including supporting the sister-clade relationship between Glomeromycotina and Mortierellomycotina and the placement of Basidiobolus as sister to other Zoopagomycota lineages.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Analysis of Early Science observations with the CHaracterising ExOPlanets Satellite ( CHEOPS ) using pycheops

ABSTRACT CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is an ESA S-class mission that observes bright stars at high cadence from low-Earth orbit. The main aim of the mission is to characterize exoplanets that transit nearby stars using ultrahigh precision photometry. Here, we report the analysis of transits observed by CHEOPS during its Early Science observing programme for four well-known exoplanets: GJ 436 b, HD 106315 b, HD 97658 b, and GJ 1132 b. The analysis is done using pycheops, an open-source software package we have developed to easily and efficiently analyse CHEOPS light-curve data using state-of-the-art techniques that are fully described herein. We show that the precision of the transit parameters measured using CHEOPS is comparable to that from larger space telescopes such as Spitzer Space Telescope and Kepler. We use the updated planet parameters from our analysis to derive new constraints on the internal structure of these four exoplanets.

Maxted, P. F. L. (ORCID:0000000337941317)↗

Quantifying the effect of late bombardment on terrestrial zircons

The first 500 million years of Earth history is thought to be a period of intense planetary bombardment, but the timing and flux of this meteorite bombardment is poorly understood. In particular, on the basis of an inferred lunar impact history, some workers have hypothesized a ~3.9 Ga terminal cataclysm (TC) in which there was marked increase in the impact flux affecting the Moon, the Earth and possibly other terrestrial planets. Minerals that survived this enigmatic period offer a way to test early planetary bombardment models as they may contain telltale micro- to nanoscale shock features. Here, we present results from a numerical modeling calculation that assesses the probability that a zircon residing in the crust would escape shock melting or shock deformation during a TC bombardment event. Even with conservative pressure estimates for zircon shock deformation and intermediate bombardment intensities, we find that only ~6% of ≥4.0 Ga crust would be expected to survive a 3.9 Ga cataclysm without experiencing either complete melting or zircon shock metamorphism. In this study, we couple this modeling with a search for shock effects in the oldest zircons from the Acasta Gneiss Complex, which would have been present in the Earth's crust during a putative 3.9 Ga TC. Spatially correlated electron and NanoSIMS ion microscopy of 4.02 Ga igneous zircons from Acasta reveals no evidence of ancient shock. These data, together with similar results from other Hadean zircon suites, confirm that a post-Hadean TC is unlikely to have occurred. We suggest that the dearth of pre-3.9 Ga terrestrial crust and zircons is instead best explained by endogenic processes related to the mechanisms of early crust formation. Our modeling allows us to evaluate bombardment scenarios from the terrestrial zircon record by applying probabilistic interpretations to zircon shock deformation data. This approach will be valuable for other planetary bodies, allowing broader conclusions to be drawn from geographically limited datasets.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Earliest Traces of Life as a Window on Life's Origins

Life is the outcome of a complex network of chemical reactions and mo-lecular interactions that emerged on Earth once primitive chemical automata could self-assemble in such a way that enabled them to self-reproduce and evolve. Yet exactly how, where and when life first appeared on our planet remains unknown. Various lines of evidence from fossilized traces of early life preserved in the geological record provide fundamental, albeit often rudimentary, insight into early life. The oldest fossils record the nature of life more than half a billion years after it emerged on Earth and suggest that considerable metabolic diversity had already evolved by this time. Microfossils, microbial mats, stromatolites and organic and inorganic geochemical signatures have been interpreted as compelling evidence for Archean biodiversity. In spite of the chemical enigmas of the earliest life and its limited record, characterization of the various classes of biosignatures indicative of life in its geological context provides guidance as to the earliest co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere.

Cavalazzi, Barbara↗