RESEARCH 

My current research primarily focuses in early solar system geologic history. Broadly I study the secondary alteration (coupled thermal and aqueous) of carbonaceous chondrites (CV3 type - Allende samples) to help address early solar system processes that occurred on asteroidal bodies. I use a variety of analytical techniques to study the specific secondary mineralogy (primarily andradite and grossular garnet) present in these chondrites to assess the role of fluids in early alteration, as well as the overall conditions of alteration. To do this my PhD research has two parallel components. I am completing a systematic study of secondary andradite and grossular garnet found in a type of carbonaceous chondrite (CV3) that are hypothesized to have formed through fluid-rock interactions (e.g., Brearley and Krot, 2013) on their parent asteroid during the evolution of the early solar system. This alteration style has similarities to garnet formation in terrestrial skarns, so I am also studying 3 different skarn localities to assess the extent to which skarn garnets can used as an analogue for understanding the fluid-rock interactions in the CV3 chondrite samples. At the culmination of my PhD work, I will be able to explain the utility of garnet for recording fluid-rock interactions.