Dr. Susanne P. Schwenzer

Postdoctoral Fellow
E-mail: schwenzer@lpi.usra.edu

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• The current project focuses on the modeling of impact-generated hydrothermal systems, especially their mineralogy. Using the knowledge of the thermal evolution of impact craters obtained during previous studies in Dr. Kring’s group, the focus is now on the calculation of mineral assemblages created by such systems. To do so, existing software packages are used. The next step is to compare our results to data available from instruments currently exploring Mars and also to (literature) data from terrestrial impact craters.

• Another field of interest is noble gases and nitrogen in Martian meteorites, which are used to track several processes acting on the rock after its formation but still on Mars. One example is the loss of radiogenic helium due to shock metamorphism. Another example are changes in the krypton and xenon budget due to secondary processes. Their nature — weathering vs. hydrothermal activity on Mars — is currently under debate. Investigation of terrestrial samples and samples from laboratory experiments are carried out to provide further information.

• Furthermore tracking the history of a rock after its launch from Mars using noble gases and understanding the processes acting on it and influencing its noble gas budgets is an important part of the work. As the main process acting on most meteorites after their arrival on Earth is terrestrial weathering, terrestrial samples from hot and cold deserts are an important tool to disentangle the effects. Moreover, the results obtained on terrestrial samples (for which we know the conditions they had been exposed to) will be used to contribute to the research on the evolution of rocks on Mars due to influences of water (weathering as well as subsurface processes) and the conditions they had been exposed to on Mars.

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Last updated
July 9, 2007