Fall 2013 Volume 4, Number 2

Newsletter of the Department of Mineral Sciences

| Rocks ∙ Meteorites ∙ Gems ∙ Volcanoes ∙ Minerals |

In this Issue

Mosquito’s Last Supper

New Acquisitions from

the 2013 Denver Gem &

Mineral Show

Eocene Mosquito’s Last Supper — A Mineral Sciences/Paleobiology Collaboration

If you haven’t heard the news yet, there is

a buzz circulating in the scientific community

about a recent discovery that took place in the

Smithsonian’s Departments of Paleobiology

and Mineral Sciences. The uproar is about a

small fossilized female mosquito found in

Middle Eocene (46 mil-

lion years ago) shale

from northwestern

Montana. What is so

intriguing about this

particular mosquito is

that it died and was pre-

served after having a

recent meal. Dale

Greenwalt, a retired

biochemist who collects

and analyzes insect fos-

sils from Montana for

the Smithsonian Institu-

tion, made the initial

discovery. Mr. Green-

walt wondered if the

abdomen of the fossil-

ized mosquito was en-

gorged by blood. Elicit-

ing the help of staff

geologists Yulia Goreva, and Tim Rose and

post-doc fellow Sandra Siljeström of the

Department of Mineral Sciences, the group

sought to answer this “Jurassic Park-like”

mystery. Utilizing DMS’ ToF-SIMS (time-of

-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer) and

SEM (scanning electron microscope) the

group was able to detect high levels of iron

and evidence of heme-derived porphyrins, a

blood protein, in the mosquito's abdomen.

From this evidence, Greenwalt and his team

concluded that the Eocene mosquito did in-

deed have blood as its last meal.

News of the discovery spreaded quickly and

was picked up by several media outlets, in-

cluding the Washington Post, Associated

Press and the National Geographic. Stories

about the discovery are currently being pre-

pared by journalists from several foreign

countries. The results of this study are pub-

lished in the Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, volume 110, pages

18496-18500. Those with a subscription to

this journal can get access to the paper online

at http://www.pnas.org/content/

early/2013/10/08/1310885110.full.pdf+html. An audio piece on the fossil was done by

NPR and can be heard at http://

www.npr.org/2013/10/14/232048774/trapped-

in-a-fossil-remnants-of-a-46-million-year-old-

meal.

Culiseta species (USNM 559050) (Diptera: Culicidae), a blood-

engorged female from the Middle Eocene Kishenehn Formation of

northwestern Montana. Note the distended and opaque dark-colored

abdomen. Photo courtesy of Dale Greenwalt.

Page 2 Volume 4, Number 2 Fall 2013

Long time member of DMS and noted meteoriticist Roy Clarke was honored by the Mete-

oritical Society on October 27, 1013 as its 2014 Service Award recipient. The celebration

which was held in Washington, DC, was attended by many of Roy’s colleagues and members

of the Department of Mineral Sciences. Congratulations Roy!

Kudos

Chair of Mineral Sciences

Tim McCoy

Newsletter Editor

Michael Wise

Dept. of Mineral Sciences

MRC 119

wisem@si.edu

Left: Ed Scott (former president of the Meteoritical Society) presenting the 2014 Service

Award to Roy Clarke. Right: Roy giving his acceptance speech. Photos by Yulia Goreva.

Awards & Grants

Glenn MacPherson was awarded a grant for $59,000 from the Grand Challenges program

(Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe theme) to purchase a newest-generation X-ray energy

-dispersive analyzer for the Department of Mineral Sciences’ scanning electron micro-

scope. This new detector will increase the efficiency for X-ray area mapping by a factor of

nearly 10x. The electronics for the analysis system have already arrived, and the detector itself

is expected to be delivered in November.

Cara Santelli received 2 grants this past fall. NSF, Environmental Engineering Program -

Collaborative Research Grant: “Optimization of metal attenuation in biologically-active reme-diation systems”. This award ($177,807) is a collaboration with Colleen Hansel (WHOI)

to identify the most effective microbial species and nutrient conditions (e.g., organic carbon

and nitrogen composition) stimulating optimal Mn oxide formation and subsequent met-

al attainment in acid mine drainage treatment systems.

DOE, EMSL/JGI Grant: “Genome-enabled Investigations of the Role of Secreted Proteins and

Reactive Metabolites in Carbon Degradation by Pure and Mixed Ascomycete Fungal Commu-

nities”. Cara is a co-PI with Colleen Hansel (lead PI) to identify the pathways for carbon degra-

dation in a diverse group of ascomycete fungi, with particular attention to the role of secreted

proteins and small molecules. With this proposal, the full genomes of at least 6 different spe-

cies of fungi (organisms previously identified by Santelli and Hansel because they contribute to

the biogeochemical cycling of carbon and the remediation of metal polluted environments) will

be sequenced. The award gives Cara free sequencing and access to highly technical scientific

equipment and staff.

Page 3 Volume 4, Number 2 Fall 2013

New Faces in DMS

Carla Rosenfeld recently finished her Ph.D. in Soil Science

and Biogeochemistry at the Pennsylvania State University

studying plant-soil interactions and their influence on heavy

metals in soils. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian,

Carla will study the role of mycorrhizal fungi, which form

symbiotic associations with a wide variety of plants, in pollu-

tant mobility and bioavailability. To do this, Carla will collabo-

rate with Cara Santelli and Melissa McCormick (SERC) stud-

ying microbially mediated metal transformations in selenium-

contaminated acid mine drainage soils.

Alexandré (Lexy) Fowler is a new contractor

in the Department of Mineral Sciences, and is col-

laborating with Cara Santelli on geomicrobiology

research. Lexy is currently working on both fungal

genome studies, and researching the relationships

between fungal metabolisms and serpentine miner-

al weathering. She began working as a volunteer

in Cara’s lab before receiving funding for contract

work through Cara’s grants. Lexy has a BA in

Geological and Environmental Sciences from

Hartwick College and an MS in Geological Sci-

ences with a focus in Geomicrobiology from the

University of Connecticut. She recently published

a paper on Bahamian stromatolites, and has previ-

ously studied both modern and fossil coral reefs

on San Salvador Island, Bahamas. Lexy also

works as a freelance writer of scientific education

materials and curricula. She thoroughly enjoys

working in the Mineral Science Department, and

hopes to one day become a permanent employee at

NMNH.

Denver Gem & Mineral Show New Acquisitions

Two samples of volcanic

bombs (lava fragments that

are ejected from a volcano

during eruption) were recent-

ly acquired and added to the

Petrology Collection. The

bombs were collected from

Mt. Shadwell, Western Vic-

toria, Australia and shows the

common aerodynamic spin-

dle-shape that often develops

as the lava travels through the

air. These samples are the

first purchase for the rock

collection in the last 25 years. Top image: Spindle-shaped volcanic bomb. Bottom image:

cross-sections of spindle bomb showing a mass of green

olivine in its center. Photo by Michael Wise.

Page 4 Volume 4, Number 2

Denver Gem & Mineral Show New Acquisitions (cont.)

Fall 2013

A small sampling of mineral specimens acquired in Denver for the

National Mineralogy Collection.

Lower right photo: Barite from Jebel

Ouichane, Morocco. Upper left

photo: Unusual blue prehnite from

Merelani, Tanzania. Most prehnite is

typically yellow green, gray, colorless

or white. Upper right photo: Corun-

dum (variety ruby) from Muzzafar

Abad mine, Kashmir, Pakistan. Pho-

tos by Michael Wise.

The Division of Meteorites recently acquired a nearly whole stone and two fragments of

the Chelyabinsk LL5 chondrite meteorite, which fell on February 15, 2013. The hundreds of

kilograms of material that reached the earth’s surface resulted from a Near-Earth aster-

oid that entered our atmosphere with an estimated speed of 18.6 km/s (over 41,000 mph or

66 960 km/h), almost 60 times the speed of sound. With an estimated initial mass of about

10,000 tons, and measuring between 17 and 20 meters in size, it is the largest known natural

object to have entered Earth's atmosphere since the

1908 Tunguska event that destroyed a wide forested

area of Siberia. Due to its enormous velocity and

shallow atmospheric entry angle, the object explod-

ed in an air burst over Chelyabinsk Oblast, at a

height of about 23.3 km (14.5 miles, 76,000 feet).

The explosion generated a bright flash, producing

many small fragmentary meteorites and a power-

ful shock wave. The total kinetic energy before at-

mospheric impact was equivalent to approximately

440 kilotons of TNT, 20–30 times more energy than

was released from the atomic bomb detonated at

Hiroshima. The predicted close approach of a se-

cond asteroid, the roughly 30-metre 2012

DA14 occurred about 16 hours later; detailed analy-

sis of the two objects later determined that they

were unrelated to each other.

Pieces of the Chelyabinsk meteorite.

Photo by Linda Welzenbach.

Page 5 Volume 4, Number 2

The International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior

(IAVCEI) General Assembly is held every few years in a city located on a volcanically active

area. This year, over 1000 volcanologists, geophysicists, and geochemists from 43 countries

convened in Kagoshima, Japan. IAVCEI meetings focus on efforts to mitigate volcanic disas-

ters, and encompass volcano monitoring, eruption forecasting, and research in volcanology and

related disciplines. Many presentations this year focused on the real-time acquisition of volca-

no monitoring data, as well as the use and improvement of databases and tools to handle such

large data sets.

Several members of the Department of Mineral Sciences attended the IAVCEI meeting, in-

cluding GVP personnel Benjamin Andrews and Brendan McCormick, DCO Postdoctoral

Fellows Marion Le Voyer and Christoph Popp, grad student Stephanie Grocke, and visiting

scientist Georg Zellmer, who all presented their most recent research. One important focus of

this conference was the development of new databases in volcanology. Benjamin Andrews

chaired a session on “databases in volcanology”, where he presented the new eruption database

from Smithsonian’s GVP, entitled “Volcanoes of the World 4.0”. In this same session, Bren-

dan McCormick also introduced his work on “A

new global database of volcanic gas emissions”.

The exciting scientific program was complement-

ed with a number of uniquely Japanese social

events, including tea degustation, calligraphy

lessons, and the chance to try a kimono and/or a

samurai costume. During the mid-conference

field trip, attendees were lucky enough to witness

Sakurajima volcano erupt (pictured on the right),

complete with a magnificent ash plume, ballistic

rocks, and flank shaking.

Meetings & Abstracts (cont).

Fall 2013

Andrews, B.J, Johnson, J., Phillips, B. &

Lyons, J. (2013) High spatio-temporal resolu-

tion photogrammetry of active dome growth,

Santiaguito Dome, Guatemala.

Andrews, B.J. & Manga, M. (2013) The dy-

namics of pyroclastic density currents: exper-

imental insights.

Auker, M.R., Sparks, S., Jenkins, S.,

Newhall, C., Jolly, G. & Venzke, E. (2013)

Towards a global volcanic hazards index.

Brown, S.K., Crosweller, S., Aspinall, W.P.,

Cottrell, E., Deligne, N., Hincks,T., Lough-

lin, S., Sparks, S.J., & Takarada, S. (2013)

Explosive volcanic eruptions: analysis of the

LaMEVE database.

Cottrell, E., Venzke, E., Siebert, L. & An-

drews, B.J. (2013) Volcanoes of the World

4.0: The volcano and eruption database of

Smithsonian’s Global Volcanism Program.

Dennen, R., Andrews, B., Manga, M. &

DeGruyter, W. (2013) Experimental con-

straints on the effects of shear and displace-

ment on vesicle coalescence.

Grocke, S.B., Cottrell, E., de Silva, S.L.,

Andrews, B.J., Kelley, K.A. (2013)

Evaluating the role of crustal assimilation on

the oxidation state of arc magmas.

Page 6 Volume 4, Number 2

Meetings & Abstracts (cont).

Fall 2013

Johnson, J.B. Andrews, B.J. & Lyons, J.J.

(2013) The surface manifestations of cyclic

tilt at Volcán Santiaguito (Guatemala).

Le Voyer, M., Rose-Koga, E.F., Cottrell, E.,

Kelley, K.A., & Hauri, E. (2013) Fluorine

and chlorine as tracers of magma-fluid and

magma-crust interactions.

McCormick, B.T., Clor, L.E., Andrews,

B.J., Chiodini, G., Cottrell, E., Erickson, J.A.,

Fischer, T.P., Fox, P., Hauri, E.H., Hsu, L.,

Johansson, A., Lehnert, K.A., Popp, C.,

Venzke, E., & West, P. (2013) A new global

database of volcanic gas emissions.

McNutt1, S.R. Venzke, E., & Williams, E.R.

(2013) Volcanic lightning: New global obser-

vations and constraints on source mecha-

nisms.

Popp, C., Andrews, B., Chance, K., Cottrell,

E., Buchwitz, M., Reuter, M., & Schneising,

O. (2013) Detection of volcanic CO2 in the

August 2008 Kasatochi eruption plume by

SCIAMACHY measurements.

Sparks, S.J., Bear-Crozier, A., Connor, C.,

Cottrell, E., Delgado Granados, H., Horwell,

C., Jolly, G., Komorwowski, J-C., Loughlin,

S.C., Mandeville, C., Muir-Wood, R., Nadim,

F., Newhall, C., Papale, P., Robertson, R.,

Smolka, A., Takarada, S. & Greg Valentine,

G. (2013) Global volcano model: progress

towards an international co-ordinated network

for volcanic hazard and risk.

Vye-Brown, C., Auker. M., Brown, S.K.,

Cottrell, E., Bear-Crozier, A., Delgado Gra-

nados, H., Jenkins, S., Loughlin, S., Mande-

ville, C., Nadim, F., Newhall, C., Papale, P.,

Sparks, S. & Shinji Takarada, S. (2013) De-

livering the UN Global Assessment of Risk

Report for volcanoes.

DMS curator Glenn MacPherson gave an

invited Keynote Address at the 2013 Gold-

schmidt Conference in Florence, Italy, during

August. Over 4000 geoscientists from all over

the world attended the conference, which is a

record for this annual meeting.

Brounce, M., Kelley, K. & Cottrell, E.

(2013) Evaluating proxies for oxygen fugaci-

ty at the Mariana arc.

Cottrell, E. & Kelley, K. (2013) Redox het-

erogeneity in MORB as a function of mantle

source.

Grocke, S., Cottrell, E., de Silva, S., An-

drews, B. & Kelley, K. (2013) The role of

crustal assimilation on the oxidation state of

arc magmas.

Hollister, L., Andronicos, C., Bindi, L., Dis-

tler, V., Eddy, M., Eiler, J., Guan, Y., Kostin,

A., Kryachko, V., MacPherson, G., Stein-

hardt, W., Yudovskaya, M. & Steinhardt, P.

(2013) Natural Cu-Al-Fe metallic quasicrys-

tals in the new CV3 meteorite find, Khatyrka.

Kelley, K., Cottrell, E. & Brounce, M.

(2013) The relationship between fO2 and calc

-alkaline affinity of arc magmas.

MacPherson, G. (2013) Keynote address:

Micro-chronology of the earliest solar sys-

tem: challenges for the future.

McCormick, B., Cottrell, E., Fischer, T.,

Chiodini, G. & Cardellini, C. (2013) Trans-

formational science with a new global volcan-

ic gas emissions database.

Rubin, K., Michael, P., Gill, J., Clague, D.,

Plank, T., Escrig, S., Glancy, S., Todd, E.,

Cooper, L., Keller, N., Soule, A., Hellebrand,

E., Kelley, K., Cottrell, E., Jenner, F., Arcu-

lus, R., Ruprecht, P., Lupton, J., Langmuir, C.

& Embley, R. (2013) Timescale and petro-

genesis of 2009 and older W. Mata boninite

magmas.

Florence, Italy August 25-30

Page 7 Volume 4, Number 2

Bullock, E.S., Corrigan, C.M., McCoy, T.J.

& Hill, K. (2013) Unraveling the metamor-

phic, impact and cooling history of EH3

Chondrites.

Brearley, A.J., Fagan, T.J., Washio, M. &

MacPherson, G J. (2013) Alteration veins in

Allende CAIs: preliminary FIB/TEM obser-

vations.

Corrigan, C.M. & Lunning, N.G. (2013) The

difficulty of finding ancient melt clasts in

ordinary chondrite impact breccias.

Corrigan, C.M., Velbel, M.A., Vicenzi, E.P.

& Konicek, A. (2013) Nakhlite NWA 5790:

Modal mineralogy and comparison with the

rest of the nakhlites.

Lunning, N.G., McSween, Jr., H. Y. & Beck,

A.W. (2013) Heterogeneity in the Vestan

regolith: evidence from the GRO 95 HED

pairing group.

McCoy, T.J., McKeown, D.A., Buechele,

A.C., Tappero, R. & Gardner-Vandy, K.G

(2013) Do enstatite chondrites record multi-

ple oxidation states?

Righter, K., Fries, M.D., Gibson, E.K., Har-

rington, R., Keller, L.P., McCoy, T.J., Mor-

ris, R.V., Nagao, K., Nakamura-Messenger,

K., Niles, P., Nyquist, L., Park, J., Peng, Z.X.,

Shih, C.-Y., Simon, J.I. & Zeigler, R.A.

(2013) Consortium study of the Chelyabinsk

meteorite.

Velbel, M.A., Corrigan, C.M., Vicenzi, E.P.,

Konicek, A. & Lunning, N.G. (2013) Modal

abundances of major phases in the Miller

Range 03346 Mars meteorite pairing group

and comparison with other Nakhlites.

Williams, C.D., Hervig, R.L., Wadhwa, M.,

Bullock, E.M. & MacPherson, G.J. (2013)

Rare earth element concentrations in Allende

fun CAI CMS-1.

Meetings & Abstracts (cont).

Fall 2013

In the Media

DMS volcanologist Ben Andrews was recently featured in a Smithsonian web article. The

short article highlights the work being conducted at Ben’s experimental volcanology lab at the

Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center where he attempts to simulate volcanic eruptions. You

can read the article at http://www.mnh.si.edu/explore/Stunning-Science/an-erupting-volcano-in

-a-wooden-box.html and get a glimpse of Ben’s experiment in action.

Page 8 Volume 4, Number 2

Beck, A., McCoy, T., Sunshine, J., Viviano,

C., Corrigan, C., Hiroi, T. & Mayne, R.

(2013) Challenges in detecting olivine on the

surface of 4Vesta. Meteoritics & Planetary

Science, doi: 10.1111/maps.12160

Bullock, E.S., Knight, K.B., Richter, F.M.,

Kita, N.T., Ushikubo, T., MacPherson, G.J.,

Davis, A.M. & Mendybaev, R.A. (2013) Mg

and Si isotopic fractionation patterns in types

B1 and B2 CAIs: Implications for formation

under different nebular conditions. Meteorit-

ics & Planetary Science, 48, 1440-1458.

de Moor, J.M., Fischer, T.P., Sharp, Z.D.,

King, P., Wilke, M., Botcharnikov, R.E., Cot-

trell, E., Zelenski, M., Marty, B., Klimm, K.,

Rivard, C., Ayalew, D., Ramirez, C. & Kel-

ley, K.A. (2013) Sulfur degassing at Erta Ale

(Ethiopia) and Masaya (Nicaragua) volca-

noes: Implications for the degassing process-

es and oxygen fugacities of basaltic systems.

Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems,

doi:10.1002/ggge.20255

Gardner-Vandy, K., Lauretta, D.S. &

McCoy, T.J. (2013) A petrologic, thermody-

namic and experimental study of brachinites:

partial melt residues of an R chondrite-like

precursor. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Ac-

ta, 122, 36-57.

Greenwalt, D.E., Goreva, Y.S., Siljeström,

S.M., Rose, T. & Harbach, R.E. (2013) He-

moglobin-derived porphyrins preserved in a

Middle Eocene blood-engorged mosquito.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci-

ences, 110, 18496-18500.

Grocholski, B., Shim, S.-H & Prakapenka,

V.B. (2013) Stability, metastability, and elas-

tic properties of a dense silica polymorph,

seifertite. Journal of Geophysical Research:

Solid Earth, 118, 4745-4757.

Ivanova, M.A., Lorenz, C.A., Franchi, I.A.,

Bychkov, A.Y. & Post, J.E. (2013) Experi-

mental simulation of oxygen isotopic ex-

change in olivine and implication for the for-

mation of metamorphosed carbonaceous

chondrites. Meteoritics & Planetary Science,

48, 2059-2070.

Kita, N.T., Yin, Q-Z., MacPherson, G.J.,

Ushikubo, T., Jacobsen, B., Nagashima, K.,

Kurahashi, E., Krot, A.N. & Jacobsen, S.B.

(2013) 26Al-26Mg isotope systematics of the

first solids in the early solar system. Meteorit-

ics & Planetary Science, 48, 1383-1400.

MacPherson, G.J., Andronicos, C.L., Bindi,

L., Distler, V.V., Eddy, M.P., Eiler, J.M.,

Guan, Y., Hollister, L.S., Kostin, A., Kryach-

ko, V., Steinhardt, W.M., Yudovskaya, M. &

Steinhardt, P.J. (2013) Khatyrka, a new CV3

find from the Koryak Mountains, Eastern

Russia. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 48

(8): 1499-1514.

Peplowski, P., Lawrence, D., Prettyman, T.,

Yamashita, Y., Bazell, D., Feldman, W., Le

Corre, L., McCoy T., Reddy, V., Reedy, R.,

Russell, C. & Toplis, M. (2013) Composition-

al variability on the surface of 4 Vesta re-

vealed through GRaND measurements of

high-energy gamma rays. Meteoritics & Plan-

etary Science, doi: 10.1111/maps.12176

Seagle, C.T., Cottrell, E., Fei, Y., Hummer,

D.R. & Prakapenka, V.B. (2013) Electrical

and thermal transport properties of iron and

iron-silicon alloy at high pressure. Geophysi-

cal Research Letters, 40, 1-5.

Toplis, M., Mizzon, H., Monnereau, M., For-

ni, O., McSween, H., Mittlefehldt, D.,

McCoy, T., Prettyman, T., De Sanctis, M.,

Raymond C. & Russell C. (2013) Chondritic

models of 4 Vesta: Implications for geochem-

ical and geophysical properties. Meteoritics &

Planetary Science, doi: 10.1111/maps.12195.

Yamashita, N., Prettyman, T., Mittlefehldt,

D., Toplis, M., McCoy, T., Beck, A., Reedy,

R., Feldman, W., Lawrence, D., Peplowski,

P., Forni, O., Mizzon, H., Raymond C. &

Russell C. (2013) Distribution of Iron on Ves-

ta. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, doi:

10.1111/maps.12139.

Zhou, Q., Herd, C.D.K., Yin, Q.-Z., Li, X.-

H., Wu, F.-Y., Li, Q.-L., Liu, Y., Tang, G.-Q.

& McCoy, T.J. (2013) Geochronology of the

Martian meteorite Zagami revealed by U–Pb

ion probe dating of accessory minerals. Earth

and Planetary Science Letters, 374, 156-163.

Fall 2013

Selected Publications