Dr Susanne P Schwenzer

Biography

"I joined the Open University in 2009 for a post doctoral position in Ar-Ar dating and became a Research Investment Fellow in 2013. Before I held post-doctoral positions in the field of noble gases (Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany) and impact-cratering (Lunar and Planetary Institute, US). I specialize in tracking water-related alteration processes using isotopic, noble gas, Ar-Ar, experimental and modeling techniques. I started my career working on Black Forest hydrothemal vein minerals (Diplom thesis), and also used As speciation techniques on tectonically driven, As-laden (up to 100 µg/L) hydrothermal waters from Wiesbaden to investigate into the amount of precipitation of As alongside with the Fe-oxides. During my PhD I applied noble gas mass spectrometry (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) to Martian meteorites and related materials. I received a German Science foundation grant to investigate into the changes inflicted on the noble gas budget of meteorites by weathering during terrestrial residence in hot and cold deserts. More recently, I applied high-resolution Ar-Ar dating to disentangle the post-magmatic, fluid-related history of volcanic arc plutonites from the Cadomian Belt. My interest in impact-cratering and Early Earth processes was sparked during my time at LPI in Houston, where I applied thermochemical modeling techniques to predict minerals that would form in the aftermath of large hypervelocity impacts into water bearing planetary crust. My curent work centres around fluid-rock interactions on Earth and Mars. As a team member of the Mars Science Laboratory mission participating scientist John C. Bridges (Space Research Centre, University of Leicester) I am currently working on the Curiosity rover and will be working on the WISDOM instrument of ESA's ExoMars rover inthe future."

Research Interest

I am a mineralogist specialized in noble gases and hydrothermal minerals/processes.  Overall, the current foci of my work are Mars and Earth.  For Mars there are three main topics: Curiosity in Gale Crater, impact-generated hydrothermal systems and noble gases in Martian meteorites.  The questions that I am interested in include Martian meteorite’s noble gases, Martian impact-generated hydrothermal systems and their interaction with the surface and atmosphere, and experimental work related to both areas.  My main interest is in understanding hydrous alteration processes, the effects of mineralogical changes on the chemical and physical rock features, and the local environments crated by those processes.  I am interested in applying results of individual experiments to ongoing and future missions to Mars, especially the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which launched on 26 of November 2011. The investigation of individual mineral assemblages and their formation eventually leads to questions of environmental conditions and habitability on Mars and on early Earth.  To understand the processes out of reach for field based geology, I am regularly engaging in studying processes on terrestrial analogues and experiments.