alumni reception - Syracuse Universe Department of Earth Sciences ...

illion year time-scales. As a potassium-bearing
mineral, jarosite is a potential chronometer for
dating the presence of liquid water near the surface
of Mars. To prepare for future Mars sample return
missions where Martian jarosite will be analyzed, we
are looking to understand how to properly interpret
measured ages in the context of Mars geology.
Additionally, we have completed fieldwork in
the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming where we collected
a series of jarosite, hematite, and goethite-bearing
samples from the Paleocene Fort Union and Eocene
Willwood Formations. These units consist of
ancient paleosols (soils preserved in the rock-record)
that underwent a
post-depositional
environmental
transition from
water-saturated to
drained and arid;
very similar to that of
the Burns Formation
at Meridiani Planum
on Mars. As a nearsurface
geological
analog for Mars, we
Joe intently looking for Martian
analogs in Wyoming.
are investigating the
possibility of dating
the transition from
wet to dry, and then apply the methodology to future
Mars missions. Ability to construct a time-scale for
the past wet environments on Mars has important
implications for the possibility of life to have
developed on the planet.
In the background of these studies we are
gearing up to run some simple experiments seeking
to gain insight towards questions about the degree to
which basalt outgases and re-equilibrates atmospheric
argon when melted and recrystallized, if there is a
mantle contribution toward excess argon in highpressure
amphibole, and what is the mantle argon
signature recorded in various ultramafic rocks from
the Late Paleozoic through the Mesozoic.
James Metcalf
I had another full year working as the noble
gas thermochronology lab manager and research
associate. This year marks the end of the NSF grant
Paul Fitzgerald and Suzanne Baldwin received that
I was originally hired on, investigating along- and
across-strike patterns of uplift and exhumation in the
Pyrenees. We used a variety of thermochronometers
(apatite fission-track, apatite (U-Th)/He, and K-
feldspar 40 Ar/ 39 Ar) on samples collected throughout the
core of the range and identified three primary episodes
of exhumation in the Pyrenees. Our current methods
best constrain the middle exhumation event that began
in the Late Eocene (~40 Ma), and continued until the
Early Miocene (~17 Ma). Working with our Spanish
colleague Professor Josep-Anton Muñoz (Univ. of
Barcelona), we are currently preparing manuscripts
that discuss how this exhumational event fits into
the overall orogenic history of the Pyrenees. We are
hoping to continue our research in the Pyrenees, and
are in the process of applying for additional grants to
support our work.
In addition to the Pyrenees research, I am kept
busy with a variety of activities in the research group.
We are implementing some upgrades to the noble gas
lab, which will hopefully make sample analyses more
efficient.
Working
with Suzanne
Baldwin, I
therefore had
a busy year of
maintaining
and updating
the hardware
Jim spending a little “quality time” in the lab.
in the noble
gas lab. I am
impressed by the diversity of projects that the faculty,
post-docs, and students in our group are pursuing; it
certainly keeps the days interesting!
Aisha Morris
This past year has been a busy and exciting
one for me here in the Department of Earth Sciences,
as well as in the SU community as a whole. Over the
past year, I have submitted two research proposals
(one to NSF with an education and outreach focus and
one to NASA examining glaciovolcanism in British
Columbia), and have two more in the pipeline for
submittal in the coming months. My latest research
paper, examining the morphology, distribution and
proposed formation of impact melt and debris flows
on Tooting Crater, Mars, has been accepted for
publication in the planetary science journal, Icarus. I
have also had the opportunity to teach the EAR105
course during the first summer session of 2010, and I
had a blast interacting with the students in my class!