January 29, 2025
Grant: $1,000 in Spring 2023
Education level at the time of the grant: PhD student
Project Description:
To better understand some unusual mineralogical findings of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars, Prestahnúkur Volcano in the Western Volcanic Zone of Iceland was used as a Mars environmental analog field site to study the genesis and preservation of silica-rich sediments in a basaltic terrain. Prestahnúkur itself is a rhyolitic, or silica-rich, subglacial volcano that is surrounded by purely basaltic (silica-poor) volcanic terrain. The silica-rich sediments produced by Prestahnúkur are transported in a glacial meltwater stream across a floodplain and are incorporated into the surrounding basaltic sediments.
The goal of this project was to study how different forms of silica produced by Prestahnúkur were incorporated into and preserved in the terrain, and to draw comparisons to mineralogical and geochemical findings by Curiosity in Mars’s Gale Crater. Our findings at Prestahnúkur were so similar to those from the Buckskin mudstone drill core on Mars that the Curiosity rover science team is now adopting Prestahnúkur as an official environmental analog field site for future scientific research.
How did the grant process or the project itself influence you as a scientist/researcher?
This project was the final chapter of my doctoral research plan. The generous funds from Sigma Xi enabled me to conduct remote fieldwork and get one step closer to actualizing my dream of being a PhD scientist.
What advice would you give to future applicants?
Be persistent. It took me two tries to receive funding, so don’t give up if you are not selected the first time. You got this!
Where are you now?
After completing my PhD, I worked as a Mars geochemist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. I am currently working as a chief scientist on a new venture.
Students may apply for Sigma Xi research grants by March 15 and October 1 annually at www.sigmaxi.org/giar.