University of Hawai'i University Relations Media & Publications Honolulu, HI 96822	(808) 956-8856 Telephone (808) 956-3441 Facsimile ur@hawaii.edu E-Mail
For Immediate Release:	July 29, 1997
Contact: Cheryl Ernst, UH, (808) 956-5941 Lynn Simarski, NSF, (703) 306-1070

UH Manoa to Get Another Piece of the (Martian) Rock The University of Hawai'i at Manoa is one of seven institutions selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to pursue studies of meteorite ALH84001 as part of a coordinated program with NASA to investigate possible traces of ancient life in the Martian rock. The nearly $800,000 from NSF and 16 additional NASA grants represent a coordinated, interdisciplinary program to use analyze the provocative rock. Hawai'i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology (HIGP) researchers Ed Scott, Shiv Sharma and Lauren Browning will receive a 0.5 gram chip, three polished, thin sections of the meteorite and $125,000 over three years. They will use optical, electron and atomic force microscopes and newly developed spectroscopic techniques to characterize the carbonates and their organic and inorganic constituents. Two models for the origin of the carbonates will be studied-shock melting of carbonates at high temperatures that would virtually preclude the presence of fossils of carbon-based life and low-temperature deposition in pores and fractures from aqueous fluids. Scott, with colleagues Akira Yamaguchi and Sasha Krot, suggested last May that carbonates found in the meteorite more likely resulted from material melted in the high temperatures of a giant impact on Mars than from living organisms. Their conclusions were published in Nature. Studies at other universities will investigate analogous features in terrestrial rocks from environments that may resemble those of ancient Mars, scan the meteorite for extremely fine-scale alteration of the mineral interface by microbes, study the carbon isotopes to see if they reflect a ratio typical of microbial life and develop a chemical method to fingerprint biological activity in meteorites. Still other projects will look at mineral particles for "biomarkers" (signs of past life), develop thermodynamic models for mineral alteration in hydrothermal environments and delineate the rock's temperature history and its past infiltration by fluids. Meteorite ALH84001 is one of about 8,000 meteorites collected in Antarctica by U.S. researchers. NSF is the lead agency for managing the collection and distribution of Antarctic meteorites, which is done in collaboration with NASA and the Smithsonian Institution. Other institutions receiving NSF grants are University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo, Iowa State University, Arizona State University, University of Minnesota, University of California-Santa Cruz, Washington University in St. Louis and the California Institute of Technology.   Other HIGP connections to Mars meteorite research-Jeff Taylor chaired the panel that reviewed proposals submitted to NASA. Director Klaus Keil is principal investigator on the NASA grant that supported initial research on the meteorite by Scott and his colleagues. Planetary Sciences Research- visit http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/PSRdiscoveries

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