Report from the Lunar and planetary science conference 2008

With the support of the Geochemistry Group, I was able to attend this year's Lunar and Planetary Science conference in Houston TX. I gave an oral presentation on "Determining the source of ejecta using heavy mineral provenance techniques; a Manicouagan distal ejecta case study". The talk generally outlined the problems with current techniques for linking a ballistic ejecta deposit to a potential source impact crater. Traditionally, rare Earth element (REE) analysis was used to correlate between melts from a potential source crater to melts observed in an ejecta deposit. However, a problem arises when an ejecta layer has undergone diagenesis as REE readily mobilise and in some cases melts can completely devitrify to clay essentially erasing the REE signature (As is the case with the Manicouagan distal ejecta deposit found near Bristol). For this reason, an alternative correlation technique had to be developed. A heavy mineral provenance technique was the obvious solution. We successfully completed a high resolution correlation study using primarily the geochemical signatures of garnet as well as radiogenic dating of biotite, rutile and zircon. We have since demonstrated that heavy mineral provenance techniques can be readily applied to correlating impact ejecta deposits to potential source craters. See the abstract for more detail. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1254.pdf My PhD focuses on various aspects of impact ejecta on Earth and Mars. The LPSC not only provided me with the opportunity to present my work but to also make key contacts in my field of research. Since the conference I have made excellent research relationships with many of the world experts in my field, and without the help of the geochemistry group, this would not have been possible.