Announcements of Opportunity
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SURF: Announcements of Opportunity
Below are Announcements of Opportunity posted by Caltech faculty and JPL technical staff for the SURF program. Each AO indicates whether or not it is open to non-Caltech students. If an AO is NOT open to non-Caltech students, please DO NOT contact the mentor. Announcements of Opportunity are posted as they are received. Please check back regularly for new AO submissions!
Remember: This is just one way that you can go about identifying a suitable project and/or mentor. Click here for more tips on finding a mentor. Announcements for external summer programs are listed here.
*Students applying for JPL projects should complete a SURF@JPL application instead of a "regular" SURF application.
*Students pursuing opportunities at JPL must be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents.
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| Project: | Investigation of hydrothermal alteration of the ocean crust and serpentinization in the upper mantle, and on other planetary bodies, through imaging spectroscopy | ||||||||
| Disciplines: | Geology, Geochemistry | ||||||||
| Mentor: | Rebecca Greenberger, Lab Manager and Research Scientist, (GPS), rgreenbe@caltech.edu | ||||||||
| Mentor URL: | http://ehlmann.caltech.edu/ (opens in new window) | ||||||||
| Background: |
The International Continental Scientific Drilling Program’s Oman Drilling Project recovered 3.2 km of drill core from the Oman ophiolite, where the ocean crust and upper mantle were thrust onto the continent. We scanned the core with an imaging spectrometer, which measures spatially-resolved light reflected off of surfaces at many contiguous wavelengths. Because different materials absorb and reflect light differently, we can use these datasets to map minerals in the core at sub-mm spatial resolution, providing billions of measurements of mineralogy. These types of hydrothermal systems are among the most common on Earth and across the solar system, and our dataset provides a new means of understanding conditions for water-rock interaction relevant to global geochemical cycles and habitats for microbial life. There are two projects under this AO that both use samples and data from the Oman Drilling Project. The first is part of a US NSF – UK NERC grant to estimate the geochemical contributions of hydrothermal alteration of the ocean crust to seawater chemistry. The second, funded by NASA, investigates the minerals that form through serpentinization and are often related to the production of H2, which can support microbial life, at least on Earth. |
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| Description: |
There are two potential projects under this SURF opportunity in the Ehlmann research group, depending on the interest of the student(s). (1) Improving methods of mineral quantification with shortwave infrared spectroscopy in Earth and planetary remote sensing through investigation of the ocean crust: Hydrothermal alteration deep within the ocean crust cools and alters the ocean crust and also affects seawater chemistry. Using ocean crust core drilled by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program’s Oman Drilling Project, the student will complete scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements of samples and develop correlations with existing and/or new imaging spectroscopy measurements to develop more accurate methods for quantifying minerals via spectroscopy. (2) Characterizing the products of serpentinization in Oman and the Solar System: This project will use spectroscopic laboratory measurements (potentially including infrared, Raman, UV-VIS, and Mossbauer spectroscopy) to characterize samples from the Oman Drilling Project, other natural samples, and laboratory syntheses to determine the spectral signatures of serpentinization under different geochemical conditions for application to planetary datasets. The student will work with some samples within and outside of a glovebox, conduct the spectroscopy measurements, and analyze the data. |
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| References: |
Kelemen, P.B., J.M. Matter, D.A.H. Teagle, J.A. Coggon, and Oman Drilling Project Science Team, eds. Proceedings of the Oman Drilling Project: Scientific Drilling in the Samail Ophiolite, Sultanate of Oman. Vol. Phase 1 and 2. Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program. International Ocean Discovery Program, 2020. https://doi.org/10.14379/OmanDP.proc.2020. Greenberger, Rebecca N., John F. Mustard, Bethany L. Ehlmann, Diana L. Blaney, Edward A. Cloutis, Janette H. Wilson, Robert O. Green, and Abigail A. Fraeman. “Imaging Spectroscopy of Geological Samples and Outcrops: Novel Insights from Microns to Meters.” GSA Today 25, no. 12 (2015): 4–10. https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG252A.1. Crotteau, Molly A., Rebecca N. Greenberger, Bethany L. Ehlmann, George R. Rossman, Michelle Harris, Peter B. Kelemen, Damon A. H. Teagle, and the Oman Drilling Project Phase 1 Science Party. “Characterizing Hydration of the Ocean Crust Using Shortwave Infrared Microimaging Spectroscopy of ICDP Oman Drilling Project Cores.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 126, no. 11 (2021): e2021JB022676. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB022676. Greenberger, Rebecca N., Michelle Harris, Bethany L. Ehlmann, Molly A. Crotteau, Peter B. Kelemen, Craig E. Manning, Damon A. H. Teagle, and the Oman Drilling Project Science Team. “Hydrothermal Alteration of the Ocean Crust and Patterns in Mineralization With Depth as Measured by Micro-Imaging Infrared Spectroscopy.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 126, no. 8 (2021): e2021JB021976. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JB021976. Ellison, E. T., Templeton, A. S., Zeigler, S. D., Mayhew, L. E., Kelemen, P. B., Matter, J. M., & The Oman Drilling Project Science Party (2021). Lowtemperature hydrogen formation during aqueous alteration of serpentinized peridotite in the Samail ophiolite. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 126, e2021JB021981. https://doi. org/10.1029/2021JB021981 Templeton AS, Ellison ET. 2020 Formation and loss of metastable brucite: does Fe(II)-bearing brucite support microbial activity in serpentinizing ecosystems?. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 378: 20180423. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0423 |
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| Student Requirements: |
Introductory Earth Science coursework Project 1: basic programming experience |
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| Programs: |
This AO can be done under the following programs:
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