[meteorite-list] South Dakota Professor Receives NASA Grant to Study Mars Lava Flows

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Feb 1 13:26:46 2005
Message-ID: <200502011826.KAA10112_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1300&dept_id=156923&newsid=13858595&PAG=461&rfi=9

BHSU prof receives grant to study Mars lava flows
Black Hills Pioneer (South Dakato)
January 31, 2005

SPEARFISH - Dr. Steve Anderson, professor of geology and planetary
science at Black Hills State University, recently received a three-year
grant that will total more than $160,000 from the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) to study lava flows on Mars.

The research, titled, "Mars Lava Flow Surface Morphology: An Avenue for
Answering Fundamental Questions Regarding the Rates and Styles of
Volcanism," focuses on the study of lava flow surfaces and what they can
tell scientists about the eruptions that produced them. Anderson is
serving as the principal investigator on the grant and with assistance
by several colleagues including Dr. Mike Ramsey, University of
Pittsburgh; Dr. Ellen Stofan, Proxemy Research; Dr. Sue Smrekar, Jet
Propulsion Laboratory; and Dr. Jon Fink, Arizona State University.
The researchers will refine existing models to better utilize the wealth
of high-resolution data now available for flow surfaces on Mars. Their
research will promote advances in assessing volcanic regions, ranging
from interpretations of individual lava flows to regional and global
interpretations of the rates and styles of volcanism evident in
high-resolution mission data.

"Because primary lava surfaces pose significant danger, this work is
vitally important for assessing volcanic areas on Mars through remotely
sensed data," Anderson said.

The proposed work for this project involves a series of carbowax
experiments, field and modeling efforts to improve knowledge of the four
key parameters that influence morphology of lava flows: underlying
topography, composition, effusion rate and internal flow pathways.
Anderson says the research will provide an improved understanding of
lava flow emplacement over variable terrians, which has implications for
how some Martian lava flows may have been emplaced.

Anderson is excited about the grant and notes, that although he has been
involved in the Mars program for several years now, this is the first
one for which he will serve as principal investigator.

"This research should open up some new opportunities as additional data
are returned from the various missions that are currently focusing on
Mars," Anderson said.

He noted that even though much attention at NASA is focused on returning
an astronaut to the Moon as a stepping stone for an eventual manned
space flight to Mars, fundamental research on the red planet continues
as well.

"Several current missions, including the Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter
and two rovers, are providing an unprecedented opportunity to study
another planetary body, and perhaps learn something about our own planet
in the process," Anderson said.

The professor said he's often asked "why should we spend the time and
money to study a different planet?" His usual reply is that it's not all
that different than studying people.

"You can learn a lot about people by studying one person, but you
certainly can't learn everything there is to know about people by just
studying just one person. "It's the same with planets. We can learn a
lot about Earth by studying Earth, but we can learn a lot more about our
home by looking at it as part of a group, paying attention to the
differences we find among the planets and trying to learn why those
variations exist," Anderson said.

He noted that the technological spin offs from these types of missions
filter down to technology companies and become incorporated into new
products that makes business better and make lives a bit easier.

Anderson explained that there are three parts to the proposed research.
The first part is understanding how the surface over which a lava flow
travels affects its appearance.

"We really need to understand how underlying topography influences lava
flow appearance so that we can eliminate it as an unknown variable and
focus on those factors unique to Mars that affect lava flow surfaces,"
Anderson said. "This task will involve some high-precision GPS and
surveying work on active lava flows."

Anderson plans to go to Hawaii in February to construct high-precision
maps of old lava flow surfaces, then re-shoot the topography at
equally-spaced time intervals as new lava flows cover the land.

"We'll then create a final topographic map of the flow surface and use
some statistical tools to look at relationships between pre- and
post-eruption topography. We'll also do several lava flow simulation
experiments using polyethylene glycol wax extruded over different types
of flow surfaces to look at these processes in a more controlled
setting," Anderson said.

The second stage of the research involves a study of how the interior
structure of a lava flow affects its surface appearance. Again, the
researchers will conduct simulations with wax and look at active
Hawaiian lava flows with a thermal infrared camera to get an idea of
where lava is traveling beneath the black surface crusts.

According to Anderson the final stage of the research focuses on the
role of chemical composition on the surface appearance of lava flows.

"Lavas that have a relatively high percentage of silica are far more
viscous and the increased viscosity affects the surfaces of lava flows
on Earth in a profound manner," Anderson said. "However, we don't know
how these more silica-rich lavas will behave under Martian conditions,
and therefore have designed a number of simulation experiments and
mathematical models that should enable us to understand what might
happen on a different planet."

He said the goal of this work is to obtain a better fundamental
understanding of how to interpret geologic surfaces on Mars. Several
large areas of Mars are dominated by volcanoes including the largest
volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, which rises over 60,000 feet
and covers an area larger than the state of Colorado.
Received on Tue 01 Feb 2005 01:26:30 PM PST