Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies

Experiments with the high pressure wind tunnel at Arizona State University’s Planetary Aeolian Laboratory provide key data for understanding dunes on Saturn’s moon Titan. Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, is one of the few solar system bodies — and the only planetary moon — known to have fields of wind-blown dunes on its surface. (The others…

A recent article published in Science features the Martian meteorite NWA 7034 (aka Black Beauty), and details its discovery and distribution among collections. This meteorite is a polymict breccia containing a diverse assemblage of igneous and “sedimentary” materials. It was most likely produced by impact, but also involved volcanic and low-temperature alteration processes. The bulk…

This video was made from CT scans of a slice (45 mm x 55 mm x 4 mm) of the NWA 7034 (AKA “Black Beauty”) Martian meteorite from the ASU Center for Meteorite Studies collection. This meteorite is a polymict breccia containing a diverse assemblage of igneous and “sedimentary” materials. It was most likely produced…

While researchers have long known that our planet’s most abundant solid phase is magnesium iron silicate (Mg,Fe)SiO3, since this material occurs deep below Earth’s surface, in the lower mantle, it has remained officially nameless until now (in order to receive a formal, recognized name, a mineral sample must be available for characterization).  In a new…

Daniel Dunlap received his B. S. from the University of Tennessee in 2013, and is currently enrolled in the second year of his Ph. D. at ASU.  As an undergraduate student, Daniel completed a research project with advisor Hap McSween, which involved the classification of the Tupelo meteorite, an EL6 meteorite from Mississippi.  EL6 chondrites…