Lunar and Planetary Institute
Lunar and Planetary Institute
April 2011 Scientific Staff Highlights Archive

Scientific Staff Highlights


LPI Science News

LPI’s Center for Lunar Science and Exploration hosted a lunar analogue training program at the spectacular Meteor Crater in northern Arizona and the nearby San Francisco Volcanic Field in late April to early May.   The training program engaged nine postdoctoral researchers and an educational specialist from LPI, plus three graduate students from partner universities (the University of Maryland, University of Houston, and Rice University).  The team spent two days investigating the geologic processes that produced Meteor Crater, which is the world’s best preserved impact site and often used to train astronauts. The team then examined volcanic terrains that were recently used by NASA to test its Lunar Electric Rover and lunar surface operations. The world-class impact-cratered and volcanic terrains studied during the program are similar to future exploration targets on the Moon’s surface and provided participants with the geologic reality needed to enhance their study of those lunar surface sites.


Seismological Society of America Meeting 2011

Hamburger, M., G. Galgana, and K. Johnson (2011). Seismicity and Active Crustal Deformation in the Wabash Valley and  New Madrid Seismic Zones:

Where's the missing link? Theme: Bicentennial of the 1811–1812 New Madrid Earthquakes, Memphis, TN, April 2011.

Field Trip

G. Galgana attended a field trip to the New Madrid Seismic Zone, (with approximately 30 geophysicists and geologists)  which feature paleoliquefaction sites, riverine outcrops, and Reelfoot Lake Trees.


Field Training and Research Program at Meteor Crater

2011 Fall Session
September 25 through October 1, 2011
Skills developed during the field camp should better prepare students for their own thesis studies in impact cratered terrains, whether they be on Earth, the Moon, Mars, or some other solar system planetary surface.


Invited Presentations

Galgana, G., M. Hamburger and K. Johnson, "A Decade of Geodesy and Active Intraplate Tectonics in the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone: Are we there yet?", Seismological Society of America Meeting 2011, theme: Bicentennial of the 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes, Memphis, TN, April 2011 (Galgana, invited).

Clifford, S. M., J. Lasue, E. Heggy, J. Mouginot, C. Grima and J. Holt (invited), Radar Sounding Investigations of the Martian Hydrosphere and Cryosphere, International Space Science Institute & Europlanet Workshop on Quantifying the Martian Geochemical Reservoirs, Bern, Switzerland, April 2011.


LPI Science Staff Research Progress – April 2011- Published

Kramer, G. Y., J. Combe, E. M. Harnett, B. R. Hawke, S. K. Noble, D. T.

Blewett, T. B. McCord, and T. A. Giguere (2011), “Characterization of lunar swirls at Mare Ingenii: A model for space weathering at magnetic anomalies,” J. Geophys. Res., 116, E04008, doi: 10.1029/2010JE003669.

 


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The LPI is managed by the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), a national, nonprofit consortium of universities chartered in 1969 by the National Academy of Sciences at the request of NASA. USRA operates programs and institutes focused on research and education in most of the disciplines engaged in space-related science and engineering. Institutional membership in USRA now stands at 105 leading research universities.

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Scientific Staff Highlights Archive

Last updated July 26, 2011