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Meteorite Research at UMN
Meteorite Research at UMN
Although we only have a small team of meteorite researchers at the University of Minnesota, we're hard at work and have a number of research projects on the go as well as collaborating with other researchers.
Stardust Mine: A new piece of Mars found in Arizona, USA
We were fortunate enough to be the first people to analyze and classify a brand new Martian meteorite found in Arizona in 2024, named Stardust Mine.
Stardust Mine is a gabbroic shergottite - a slow-cooled magma, just like gabbro on Earth! Our analysis allowed us to reconstruct the geological history of this meteorite, estimate how hot the magma was, the order in which different minerals crystallized, the oxygen conditions, and how it relates to other Martian meteorites.
Our paper is currently under review in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, and we were pleased to share our analytical samples and a small amount of material with colleagues at NASA to run their own analyses. We can't wait to see what other information we can learn from this fascinating sample!
Fermor Seed Corn Fund, The Geological Society of London: Mercury's Long Lost Sisters
Jennifer Mitchell was awarded funding from the Geological Society of London's Fermor Seed Corn Fund - a new funding source aiming to support researchers who are unable to apply for traditional awards such as those who are technical staff, those on fixed-term contracts, and those returning to work after some time away. This 2-year award will support research into two new ungrouped achondrites that may have originated on a Mercury-like body, and will incorporate a wide range of analytical techniques available at UMN's Characterization Facility and in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences.
NWA 17510: Geological history & links to other Mars lavas
NWA 17510 is a basaltic shergottite - a lava from Mars. Masters student Ryan Murata (supervisor Marc Hirschmann) will be exploring the petrogenesis of this sample through electron microscopy and mass spectrometry. By the end of this project, Ryan will know the history of this meteorite from initial crystallization through to complete solidification, and see how it fits into the ever-growing collection of Martian meteorites.
This project is one of two that Ryan is doing as part of his degree, and we're excited to see what he discovers!
NWA 16800: early solar system accretion and alteration
NWA 16800 is a carbonaceous chondrite and hosts an enigmatic fragment that has a distinct geological history from rest of the meteorite. This fragment, called a clast, is the dark blob in the center of the slice. Electron microscopy has revealed evidence of extensive aqueous alteration within the clast but not outside of it. We hope our analysis will shed light on how this could happen and what that means for carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies.
This project is currently on-going.
Ilizi 002: Low gravity magma chamber processes
Ilizi 002 is a new cumulate eucrite found in 2024 and classified at the University of Minnesota. We aim to combine electron microscopical techniques to investigate the mineralogy (EPMA) and crystallography (EBSD) of this sample to see if we can learn more about how magma chambers and thick magmatic intrusions worked on the parent body Vesta. There aren't many classified cumulate eucrites, so this is an exciting opportunity to work on an absolutely beautiful sample!
This project is currently on-going.
Winchcombe: Continuing Efforts on a British Fall
Before coming to UMN, our Dr Jennifer Mitchell worked at the University of Plymouth (UK) and was involved in some of the research on Winchcombe - a carbonaceous chondrite that landed in the UK in 2021. Eos is a science news magazine that published an article on the Winchcombe meteorite following the release of a new paper led by Dr. Daly at the University of Glasgow. Eos' science writer Damond Benningfield reached out to Dr. Jennifer Mitchell for a few comments on this new study.
The Winchcombe meteorite records a surprisingly complicated history and might help researchers understand one of the big questions in planetary science: how did Earth get all its water?
Link to article: "A Splashy Meteorite Was Forged in Multiple Collisions"
Publications
Publications
Check out our journal publications and conference abstracts below.
Bold = current meteorite committee member and/or researcher
Underlined = previous meteorite committee member, UMN staff/students
Journal Publications
Journal Publications
Mitchell, J.T., Stephen, N.R., Allerton, Z.P., Ding, W., Zheng,X.-Y. (in review), Stardust Mine, a 2024 gabbroic shergottite from Arizona, USA, in review.
Conference Abstracts
Conference Abstracts
Mitchell, J.T., Brown, M.C., Feinberg, J.M. (2025), Preliminary compositional and magnetism analysis of Northwest Africa 15915, an unusual ungrouped achondrite, 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, LPI Contribution No. 3090:2035 [link]
First, E.C., Welsch, B.T., Mitchell, J.T., Rutherford, M.J. (2025), Widespread Ti zoning in Apollo 17 olivine, 56th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, LPI Contribution No. 3090:2873 [link]
Mitchell, J.T., Bell, A.S., Willcocks, F.M., Stephen, N.R., Luo, B. (2024), A basaltic andesite from Vesta: evidence of a highly fractionated lithology, 86th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, LPI Contribution No. 3036:6180 [link]
Mitchell, J.T., Alexander, E.C. (2024), A new meteorite repository from a historical collection at the University of Minnesota, 86th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, LPI Contribution No. 3036:6181 [link]
Mitchell, J.T., Stephen, N.R. (2024), The oriented clouding phases of HED breccia Northwest Africa 5315, 55th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, LPI Contribution No. 3040:1624 [link]
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