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Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Congratulations to the Center’s Kera Tucker!

We are pleased to announce that Kera Tucker, a graduate student in the Center for Meteorite Studies at ASU, has successfully defended her Master's thesis, entitled "Hydrogen Isotope Systematics of Nominally Anhydrous Phases in Martian Meteorites". 

Kera TuckerBased on 113 individual SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometer) analyses on 8 different martian meteorites, Kera’s research concludes that the hydrogen isotope variations observed within and between martian meteorites are likely the result of several processes including magmatic degassing, interaction with the martian atmosphere, subsolidus alteration, and/or terrestrial contamination.  Additionally, Kera's results suggest that the martian mantle water and hydrogen isotope composition are similar to those of Earth. 

A portion of Kera's thesis study was recently presented at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, in Houston, TX; you can read Kera's conference abstract here!