"What kind of research has been conducted regarding calcium depletion and human spaceflight?"
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A search for primordial water from deep in the Earth's mantle
Project Investigators: Gary Huss, Karen Meech, Michael Mottl, Don Thomas
Other Project Members
Kimberly Binsted (Masters Student)Summary
This project is designed to provide information on the origin of Earth’s water. Comparing the isotopic composition of Earth’s primordial water (D/H ratio) with the ratios of other solar system objects can help to constrain possible sources of the water. The current ocean, other surface waters, and water in the upper mantle have experiences 4.5 billion years of geologic processing that has changed the original isotopic composition. By concentrating on rapidly quenched, under-gassed lavas from hot spots like Hawaii and Iceland, we hope to identify water that has not been through the extensive processing experienced by the surface water. Such a reservoir may have survived unaltered since shortly after the accretion of the Earth and thus may provide a better idea of the original composition of the Earth’s water.
Astrobiology Roadmap Objectives:
- Objective 1.1: Models of formation and evolution of habitable planets
- Objective 4.1: Earth's early biosphere
Project Progress
During the past year, we have acquired a suite of samples from the Hawaii deep drill core that were erupted under the ocean at a depth where gases are retained in the lava by the pressure of the overlying water. We have begun to prepare these samples for study. Each sample is being cut into thin slices. Both sides of the slices are polished to provide as much surface area as possible. The polished sections will be examined by petrographic microscope and SEM to identify melt inclusions within olivine phenocrysts that hopefully trap hydrogen from the magma before the water in the magma mixed extensively with surface waters. These melt inclusions will be measured, along with some glass from around the olivine grains, with the Cameca ims 1280 ion microprobe in the W. M. Keck Cosmochemistry laboratory at the University of Hawaii to determine the D/H ratio of the water. Dr. Binsted is doing most of this work.
Dr. Meech took a trip to Iceland to gather samples.
In preparation for the ion probe measurements, we have obtained, with the help of Rhea Workman of UH, a suite of volcanic glasses with known hydrogen contents and D/H ratios to use as standards. We have made some special mounts for the standards. Within the next few weeks the standards will be mounted and characterized in the ion probe.
- HANDBOOK OF STAR FORMING REGIONS
- A Rare low mass quadruple spectroscopic AND eclipsing binary
- A search for Main Belt Comets in Pan-STARRS 1
- A search for primordial water from deep in the Earth's mantle
- A spectroscopically unique Main Belt asteroid: 10537 (1991 RY16)
- A Supertree Analysis of the Metazoan Phylogeny
- Acquisition and Installation of a new Cameca ims 1280 ion microprobe
- Acquisition and Installation of Witec Confocal Raman microscope scanning system
- Amorphization of Crystalline Water Ice in the Solar System
- Assessing the likelihood of supernova impact of protoplanetary disks
- Carbonate Lithologies on Devon Island, Canada
- Chemistry and biology of ultramafic-hosted alkaline springs
- Chemistry of the NH3/H2O system
- DIVERSITY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE UNIQUE TROPICAL PHYLUM PLACOZOA
- Dynamical Evolution of Astroid Belt and the Parent Bodies of Iron Meteorites
- Ecology of a Hawaiian lava cave microbial mat
- FMARS Long Duration Mission: a simulation of manned Mars exploration in an analogue environment, Devon Island, Canada
- Formation and Detection of Hot-Earth Objects in Systems with Close-in Jupiters
- Formation and the Prospects of the Detection of Habitable Planets in Extreme Planetary Systems
- Formation of Molecular Hydrogen via Interaction of Ionizing Radiation with Hydrocarbon Ices in the Interstellar Medium
- Formation of Planetesimals in a Dynamically Evolving Nebula
- FU ORIONIS ERUPTIONS
- Ice Ages on Mars
- Ice at the Mars Phoenix Landing Site
- Ice on Main Belt Comets
- Icelandic subglacial lakes
- Mechanisms of Marine Microbial Community Structuring
- Mechanistical Studies on the Non-Equilibrium Chemistry of Unusual Carbon Oxide in Solar System Ices
- Modeling grain surface reaction pathways for large organic molecules
- Molecular Deuteration on grain surfaces
- NEWBORN BINARIES
- Observations and Models of comet 17P/Holmes
- Origin and Activation Mechanism of Main Belt Comets
- Origin of Irregular Satellites
- Recovery of comet 85P/Boethin for the Deep Impact Extended Mission
- Sediment-buried basement deep biosphere
- Serpentinazation and abiogenic methane in the Mariana Forearc
- Sleeping through the Arctic Martian Sol
- Spectropolarimetric studies of stars with hot jupiters
- TES study of intracrater low albedo deposits, Amazonis Planitia, Mars
- The delivery of short-lived radionucleides to the solar system
- The effect of lunar-like satellites on the orbital infrared lightcurves of Earth-analog planets
- The Main Belt distribution of basaltic asteroids
- The Size Distribution of Small KBOs
- THE VYSOS PROJECT
- Ultra-violet processing of ices in the Rosette Nebula
- Unveiling the evolution and interplay of ice and gas in quiescent clouds
- Variable Young Stellar Objects Survey (VYSOS)
- Water on Mars
- X-ray- and UV-bright low-mass stars in the solar neighborhood