{"id":62610,"date":"2012-01-03T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-03T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-student-joins-effort-to-study-serpentinite-rocks-for-clues-to-life-on-mars\/"},"modified":"2012-01-03T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T00:00:00","slug":"uri-student-joins-effort-to-study-serpentinite-rocks-for-clues-to-life-on-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/01\/uri-student-joins-effort-to-study-serpentinite-rocks-for-clues-to-life-on-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 student joins effort to study serpentinite rocks for clues to life on Mars"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 3, 2012 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Ashley McCann had a rock collection as a child and recalls being motivated when her high school earth science teacher introduced her to the study of geology. But she didn\u2019t imagine that her fledgling interest in rocks would lead to an investigation of life on Mars.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cMars has a very thin atmosphere and it\u2019s constantly being bombarded with cosmic radiation and charged particles from our own Sun, so nothing can survive on the surface,\u201d said McCann, a resident of Vernon, Conn., and president of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Geology Club. \u201cBut life could exist in the subsurface if conditions are right and liquid water exists, and the presence of serpentine minerals suggests this may be so.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWorking in collaboration with 溏心vlog免费B站 Assistant Professor Dawn Cardace, McCann spent the last eight months conducting a field study of serpentinite, a rock composed primarily of minerals produced when water reacts with rocks from Earth\u2019s mantle and which have become exposed on Earth\u2019s surface due to plate tectonics. Recent remotely sensed data suggest serpentine is also found on Mars. Unusual microbial life has been detected in waters flushed from serpentinite on Earth, and scientists seek to determine whether serpentine on Mars may also host microbial life.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cIf life is on Mars, it\u2019s going to be microbial and it\u2019s going to be in the subsurface,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n


\n\tTo verify the remote mapping of serpentine on Mars, McCann surveyed a serpentinite ecosystem in Northern California last summer, collecting samples of the rock at McLaughlin Natural Reserve in Lower Lake, Cal. She spent the last several months conducting an analysis of the minerals found in the rocks using x-ray diffraction technology to compare them to the minerals known to be on Mars. She found them to be very similar.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe 溏心vlog免费B站 student presented her research last month at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, the largest gathering of earth scientists in the world. \u201cI networked with scientists from all over the world, and they were very encouraging about my work,\u201d she said. \u201cI hope to further this project as my senior thesis.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tHer research was conducted as part of the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, an initiative designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its 16th year, it is based at 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of the Environment and Life Sciences. Students are paired with a mentor and research staff to help them gain skills relevant to their academic major and future occupations. <\/p>\n


\n\tMcCann is looking forward to gaining additional geology experience next summer when she participates in a six- to eight-week field camp, traveling and studying the geology of the Midwest, learning the use of field tools and mapping techniques, and meeting aspiring geologists from around the country.<\/p>\n


\n\tDespite her enthusiasm for geology, she is uncertain about her future career path. She is strongly considering enrolling in the Peace Corps to help impoverished countries improve their agricultural practices before attending graduate school.<\/p>\n


\n\tAs a student majoring in both geology and wildlife biology, she said she has \u201cconcocted a plan to combine these two studies,\u201d perhaps working for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service evaluating critical habitat for endangered species. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cFor a very long time I had wanted to be a veterinarian, and I know I want to keep animals in my life in some way,\u201d McCann said.<\/p>\n


\nOr perhaps she will return to the McLaughlin Natural Reserve, a former gold mine, where they need geologists to help in remediation efforts.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThe Earth in general and all of its life forms and processes are what interest me most,\u201d she concluded.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 January 3, 2012 \u2013 溏心vlog免费B站 senior Ashley McCann had a rock collection as a child and recalls being motivated when her high school earth science teacher introduced her to the study of geology. But she didn\u2019t imagine that her fledgling interest in rocks would lead to an investigation of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62612,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}