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J. Michael Brown's Profile Picture

J. Michael Brown
Emeritus Professor
Participating Faculty, UW Astrobiology Program
Office: JHN 247
Phone: 206-616-6058
Fax: 206-543-0489 (shared)
Email: [javascript protected email address]
Website: http://earthweb.ess.washington.edu/brown
Interests: Experimental and theoretical mineral physics
Research Groups: Astrobiology, Mineral Physics

Education: Ph.D., Geophysics, University of Minnesota, 1980
Current Research:
Our existence is by permission of the deep Earth. Cycling of water, carbon, and all other life essential nutrients involves the actions of plate tectonics. Our atmosphere and oceans depend on physical and chemical processes that extend throughout Earth's mantle. Our planet is 12,742 km in diameter. The deepest bore hole penetrates a mere 0.1% of this distance (to 12 km). In my research group, we investigate the properties of earth materials under a wide range of pressures and temperatures in order to better understand the processes occurring in the other 99.9% of Earth where geologic field trips are not yet possible.
Recent Publications:
Waeselmann, N, Brown, J.M., Angel, R, Ross, N, Zhao, J., and Kaminsky, W. (2016) The elastic tensor of monoclinic alkali feldspars, American Mineralogist, doi:10.2138/am-2015-5583.

Brown, J. M., R. J. Angel, and N. L. Ross (2016) Elasticity of plagioclase feldspars, J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 121, doi:10.1002/2015JB012736

Brown, J.M., and Abramson, E.H. (2016) Elasticity of calcium and calcium-sodium amphiboles, Phys. Earth Planet. Int., 261, 161-171, doi: 10.1016/j.pepi.2016.10.010

Abramson, E.H., Bollengier, O., and Brown, J.M., (2017) Water-carbon dioxide solid phase equilibria at pressures above 4 GPa, Sci. Reports, 7, 821

Abramson, E.H., Bollengier, O., and Brown, J.M., (2017) The water-carbon dioxide miscibility surface to 450°C and 7 GPa, Am. J. Sci., 317, 967-989

Brown, J.M., (2018) Local basis function representations of thermodynamic surfaces: Water at high pressure and temperature as an example, Fluid Phase Equilibria, 463C, 18-31 doi:10.1016/j.fluid.2018.02.001

Abramson, E., Bollengier, O, Brown, J.M., Journaux, B, Kaminsky, W, Pakhomova, A, (2018) Carbonic acid monohydrate, American Mineralogist: doi.org/10.2138/am-2018-6554
83. Brown, J.M. (2018) Determination of elastic moduli from measured acoustic velocities, Ultrasonics, 10.1016/j.ultras.2018.05.015

Bollengier, O., Brown, J.M., Shaw, G.H., (2019) Thermodynamics of pure liquid water: Sound speed measurements to 700 MPa down to the freezing point, and an equation of state to 2300 MPa from 240 to 500 K, J. Chem. Phys. 151, 054501 doi: 10.1063/1.5097179

Journaux, B., J.M. Brown, A. Pakhomova, I. Collings, S. Petitgirard, P. Espinoza, J. Ott, F. Cova, G. Garbarino, M. Hanfland (2020) Gibbs energy of ices III, V and VI: Wholistic thermodynamics and elasticity of the water phase diagram to 2300 MPa, J. Geophys. Res. Planets, 125, doi: e2019JE006176

Journaux, B., Kalousová, K., Sotin, C. , G. Tobie, S. Vance, J. Saur, O. Bollengier, L. Noack, T. Ruckriemen-Bez, T. Van Hoolst. K. M. Soderlund, J. M. Brown (2020). Large Ocean Worlds with High-Pressure Ices. Space Sci Rev 216, 7 (2020). Doi:10.1007/s11214-019-0633-7

Brown, J.M., B. Journaux (2020) Local-Basis-Function Equation of State for Ice VII-X to 450 GPa at 300 K, Minerals, 10, 92; doi:10.3390/min10020092