Training School Program

Our planet’s evolution is inexorably linked to the history of other planets and moons in our solar system. Our close neighbors, such as the Moon or Mars, can help us to understand how and why Earth was shaped in the way it was. Fundamental questions such as, why do we have plate tectonics and other planets do not? The provenance and evolution of volatile components, atmosphere composition and structure, and why life appeared on Earth about 4 Ga ago and did not (or did it?) in other Planets such as Mars, can be answered by looking at our neighbors. Our Planet, through as wide and diverse inventory of sedimentary environments and tectonic settings, can help us to better understand planetary data that space missions has been collecting during several decades. Through the lens of understanding how physical, chemical and biological processes are complexly interrelated on Earth and by using sedimentary or tectonic analogue settings that we know, we can unravel the evolution of other planets and thus our own evolution. For this reasons the leading topic of our First Latin American Workshop on Planetary Sciences Is Connecting Earth with other Planets: Earth-based analogues to understand extraterrestrial environments. The students, by using planetary analogues as model systems, will learn how we can collect and interpret sedimentary, geochemical, tectonic and geomorphologic data to unravel relevant processes to have a better understanding of these systems. Topics such as sedimentary processes, geochemistry, tectonic and geomorphology, and different analytical and modeling techniques will be covered by theoretical and practical activities. The “connection” with other planets will be by teaching the students how to gather and interpret freely available planetary data from space missions (ESA, NASA, satellite images, spectral data, geochemical, etc) making Planetary Geology and Astrobiology research accessible to the young scientific community in Latin America. Our aim is to provide a space to start building a planetary sciences community in Latin America. The training school is organized into different interrelated modules: Module 1 – Solar System and Planetary Surface Processes Module 2 – Sedimentary and geochemical processes relevant to astrobiology Module 3 – Planetary data processing and Mapping Module 4 – Open panel for a Planetary Science network Lectures will be delivered in English and/or Spanish.