Summer 2014 Volume 5, Number 1

Newsletter of the Department of Mineral Sciences

| Rocks ∙ Meteorites ∙ Gems ∙ Volcanoes ∙ Minerals |

In this Issue

Wounded warriors visit

Mineral Sciences

A Summer of Education

& Outreach

New Acquisitions for

Rock & Ore Collection

This summer a small group

of Wounded Warriors visited

the National Museum of Natu-

ral History and was treated to a

behind-the-scenes tour of the

Department of Mineral Scienc-

es. The Wounded Warrior

Project serves veterans and

service members who incurred

injuries due to their military

service on or after September 11, 2001. The

organization raises public awareness to the

needs of injured service members and helps

them aid and assist each others through direct

services and programs.

On June 5, 2014, Emma Bullock and Paul

Pohwat gave tours of the Meteorite and Min-

eralogy collections, respectively, to Wounded

Warrior alumni Tomas Carrasquel (orange

shirt), Jacob Werline (green shirt), David

Reardon (white shirt) and Andi Broom (seated

in wheelchair), service dog trainer Carol

Balmes (black jacket), recreation therapist

Cara Navarro and family member Kathy

Broom (kneeling). Photos by Linda Welzen-

bach and Joe Mack.

Wounded Warriors get DMS visit

Page 2 Volume 5, Number 1 Summer 2014

Education & Outreach

The Department of Mineral Sciences was extremely active this summer in a number of Outreach

activities ranging from interacting with visitors during the Scientist-Is-In/Expert-Is-In programs in

Q?rius to off-site teacher workshops. The Scientist-Is-In/Expert-Is-In programs highlighted some

of the department’s diverse research in meteoritics and mineralogy.

Page 3 Volume 5, Number 1 Summer 2014

Education & Outreach (cont.)

Michael Wise and Tim McCoy were speakers during a five day Smithsonian Associates

teachers workshop held at the United Tribes Technical College, Bismarck, ND. The participants

were undergraduates working towards degrees in elementary education and represented 10 dif-

ferent Native-American tribes from the Bismarck area. Other speakers from the Smithsonian

Institution included Jim Zimbelman and Jennifer McIntosh from the National Air & Space Mu-

seum. The workshop, directed by the Smithsonian staff members, featured presentations and

hands-on, object-based activities

on various topics in earth science

such as rock and mineral identifi-

cation, the concept of geologic

time, and planetary geology.

One of the highlights of the

workshop was a one-day field

trip led by Mike and Jim to the

Theodore Roosevelt National

Park near Medora, ND where the

group learned about the geology

of the North Dakota Badlands.

Photos by Wally Mertes and Jim

Zimbelman.

Page 4 Volume 5, Number 1 Summer 2014

Education & Outreach (cont.)

In her live webcast from Q?rius, Liz Cottrell talks about volcanoes and some of the products

produced by volcanoes. The presentation was highlighted by Liz’s not-so dry demonstration of

a volcanic eruption and ended with a 5 minute Q and A session with viewers.

Page 5 Volume 5, Number 1 Summer 2014

On May 2014, Dr. Frederick Frey, Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technol-

ogy (MIT), donated 99 Hawaiian lava samples to the National Rock and Ore Collection. Seven-

ty-two samples are from the Koolau volcano, Oahu and twenty-nine samples are from the Halea-

kala volcano, east Maui. Dr. Frey’s research has focused primarily on the study of melting pro-

cesses and melt migration in the earth’s mantle. The research on these samples contributed to

the understanding of the origin and evolution of Hawaiian volcanoes.

Recent Acquisitions

The National Rock and

Ore Collection recently re-

ceived some nice manganese

dendrites on limestone.

Manganese dendrites are a

type of surficial growth of

manganese oxide minerals

that crystallize in a multi-

branching tree-like pattern.

They are often found

along fracture or bedding

planes of rocks. The

specimens shown here

are from caves on the

Yucatan peninsula of

Mexico and were a gift

of Michael and Judy

Chakmanoff. Photos by

Ken Larson.

Page 6 Volume 5, Number 1

Andrews, B.J. (2014) Magmatic storage con-

ditions, decompression rate, and incipient

caldera collapse of the 1902 eruption of Santa

Maria Volcano, Guatemala. Journal of Vol-

canology and Geothermal Research, 282, 103

-114.

Andrews, B.J. & Manga, M. (2014) Thermal

and rheological controls on the formation of

mafic enclaves or banded pumice. Contribu-

tions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 167(1)

doi:10.1007/s00410-013-0961-7

Carey, R.J., Wysoczanski, R., Wunderman,

R. & Jutzeler, M. (2014) Discovery of the

Largest Historic Silicic Submarine Eruption.

Eos, Transactions American Geophysical

Union, 95, 157-159.

Duke, G.I., Carlson, R.W., Frost, C.D.,

Hearn Jr., B.C. & Eby, G.N. (2014) Conti-

nent-scale linearity of kimberlite–carbonatite

magmatism, mid-continent North America.

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 403, 1-

14.

Feather, R.C. (2014) Beyond Hope: Some

Other Notable Diamonds at the Smithsonian

Institution—Part 2. Rocks & Minerals, 89,

148-153.

Greenwalt, D., Rose, T., Siljestrom, S.,

Goreva, Y., Constenius, K. & Wingerath, J.

(2014) Taphonomic studies of the fossil in-

sects of the Middle Eocene Kishenehn For-

mation. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica,

doi:10.4202/app.00071.2014

Summer 2014

Selected Publications

Kudos

Department of

Mineral Sciences

Safety Officer

and Analytical

Laboratories

Manager Tim

Rose was one of

the Smithsonian

Institution 2014

Safety Persons of

the Year award

recipient. Tim’s

award actually

resulted from an

incident that

happened over

three decades

ago. As Tim

explains…”Over

thirty years ago here in the Natural History Museum, Joan Madden, who later became our first

Education Department head, was nearly electrocuted through a beaded metal lanyard she was

wearing. Recently, when a new research associate returned from the ID office, I noticed he was

wearing one of those beaded metal electrically- conductive lanyards with his new ID hanging

from it. I checked around and found quite a number of other staff had also been issued these

lanyards. To make a long story short, institutional memory of the terrible accident had been

lost so something had to be done. With some help from Kathy Makos of our Office of Safety,

Health and Environmental Management, I was able to find the right people around the institu-

tion and here at NMNH to help. Now non-conductive breakaway lanyards are issued to all new

staff and are replacing unsafe ones”. Congratulations go out to Tim and we all thank him for

his tireless efforts to make our workplace safer.

Page 7 Volume 5, Number 1

Helz, R.T., Clague, D.A., Mastin, L.G., &

Rose, T.R. (2014) Electron microprobe anal-

yses of glasses from Kīlauea Tephra Units,

Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii. U.S. Geological

Survey Open-File Report 2014–1090, 24 p.,

plus 2 appendixes in separate files, http://

dx.doi.org/10.3133/ofr20141090.

Hollister, L.S., Bindi, L., Yao, N., Poirier,

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

Lin, C., Distler, V.V., Eddy, M.P., Kostin, A.,

Kryachko, V., Steinhardt, W.M.,

Yudovskaya, M., Eiler, J.M., Guan, Y.,

Clarke, J.J. & Steinhardt, P.J. (2014) Impact-

induced shock and the formation of natural

quasicrystals in the early solar system. Nature

Communications, 5: 8 doi:10.1038/

ncomms5040

MacPherson, G.J. & Krot, A.N. (2014) The

formation of Ca-, Fe-rich silicates in reduced

and oxidized CV chondrites: The roles of

impact-modified porosity and permeability,

and heterogeneous distribution of water ices.

Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 49, 1250-

1270.

McCormick, B.T., Herzog, M., Yang, J.,

Edmonds, M., Mather, T.A., Carn, S.A., Hi-

dalgo, S. & Langmann, B. (2014) A compari-

son of satellite- and ground-based measure-

ments of SO2 emissions from Tungurahua

volcano, Ecuador. Journal of Geophysical

Research: Atmospheres, 119, 4264-4285.

McKeown, D.A., Buechele, A.C., Tappero,

R., McCoy, T.J. & Gardner-Vandy, K.G.

(2014) X-ray absorption characterization of

Cr in forsterite within the MacAlpine Hills

88136 EL3 chondritic meteorite. American

Mineralogist, 99, 190-197.

Peplowski, P.N., Evans, L.G., Stockstill-

Cahill, K., Lawrence, D.J., Goldsten, J.O.,

McCoy, T.J., Nittler, L.R., Solomon, S.C.,

Sprague, A.L., Starr, R.D. & Weider, S.Z.

2014. Enhanced sodium abundance in Mercu-

ry's north polar region revealed by the MES-

SENGER Gamma-Ray Spectrometer. Icarus,

228, 86-95.

Rakovan, J., Gaillou, E., Post, J.E., Jaszczak,

J.A. & Betts, J.H. (2014) Optically sector-

zoned (star) diamonds from Zimbabwe. Rocks

& Minerals, 89, 173-178.

Rosenfeld, C.E., McCormack, M. L. & Mar-

tínez, C.E. (2014) A novel approach to study

composition of in situ produced root-derived

dissolved organic matter. Soil Biology and

Biochemistry, 76, 1-4.

Swanson, D.A., Rose, T.R., Mucek, A.E.,

Garcia, M.O., Fiske, R.S. & Mastin, L.G.

(2014) Cycles of explosive and effusive erup-

tions at Kilauea Volcano, Hawai'i. Geology,

42, 631-634.

Walsh, J.M. & Rose, T.R. (2014) Mascaras

de Teotihuacan. Una tipologia prelimi-

nar. Arqueologia Mexicana, XXI, numero

126, Marzo-abril de 2014, 78-85.

Weider, S.Z., Nittler, L.R., Starr, R.D.,

McCoy, T.J. & Solomon, S.C. (2014) Varia-

tions in the abundance of iron on Mercury's

surface from MESSENGER X-Ray Spec-

trometer observations. Icarus, 235, 170-186.

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

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

McCoy, T.J. (2014) Reply to comment on

"Geochronology of the Martian meteorite

Zagami revealed by U–Pb ion probe dating of

accessory minerals". Earth and Planetary

Science Letters, 385, 218-220.

Summer 2014

Selected Publications