Project 16:
The USGS Astrogeology Science Center’s Terrestrial Analog Sample Collection (TASC) Shoemaker Collection is an essential part of the legacy of Dr. Eugene Shoemaker, whose pioneering work in the 1960’s established the new field of astrogeology, including shock metamorphism studies, impact crater modeling, and stratigraphic relations on other planetary bodies. Impact crater rocks from terrestrial sites like Sierra Madera Crater (TX), Steinheim Crater (Germany), Australian impact craters, and the Colorado Plateau sample collection are some of the samples in this collection that need to be catalogued. The scope of this project is to rescue these samples from their current inadequate storage, and then inventory and describe these samples in an electronic (Excel-based) database.
The student will catalog geologic hand samples, thin section and billets, field and laboratory notebooks, field photos, and rotary projector slides. Work will be performed in a rock laboratory at the USGS Flagstaff Campus. Samples and their original documentation, if available, will be catalogued in an electronic database. Samples will then be re-boxed as necessary and moved to permanent storage. Shoemaker materials will be systematically inventoried, box by box. Each sample will be removed from its original container, described, cleaned, and put into a new storage container. Detailed information for each sample will be entered into the project database. The sample and its original label will be photographed. We will work with the USGS Astrolink staff to recover relevant sample documentation. Eight to ten hours per week over two semesters is required to complete the work.
The anticipated product of the proposed project is a completely cataloged and described Shoemaker Collection (both samples and the electronic database), which will be accessible to interested scientists and other researchers for future scientific studies. The anticipated outcome of this project is long-term preservation of this collection that contributes to the legacy of Dr. Eugene Shoemaker. Depending on the applicant’s interest, preparation and presentation of this work could result in a first-authored abstract and poster presentation at an international science conference (e.g., Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, or equivalent).