Seminars & Colloquia Calendar

ABSTRACT:  Understanding the origin and distribution of planetary materials in our Solar System provides crucial constraints on the geochemical and geophysical behavior of early Solar System processes as well as planetary evolution, including the origin and evolution of our own planet Earth and the Earth-Moon system. The integrated results of the past decades worth of studying extraterrestrial meteorites demonstrates the complex geologic history of our Solar System, including the distribution of volatiles, which help us place crucial constraints on the availability of magmatic fluids for any potential occurrences and sustenance of life. The discovery and recovery of meteorites in pristine conditions, thus, is highly important and plays a fundamental role in placing such constraints on the origin and evolution of planetary bodies and the distribution of water throughout our Solar System. One of the very few places to find and recover meteorites in pristine conditions is on the ice plateau in Antarctica, a cold desert.

In this talk I will discuss extraterrestrial sample science and highlight some of the most recent discoveries, and will speak about the wonders, hardships, and daily struggles of life on the ice plateau and the most wonderous joys of finding and recovering meteorites during my time in Antarctica with the ANSMET (ANtacrtic Search of METeorites) field team led by Case Western University and NASA.