Adam Simon and colleagues in the
Stillwater Platinum-Palladium Mine,
Montana, USA

Geoscience PhD student, Aaron Bell, and faculty member, Adam Simon, have published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (reprint) the results of a study which sheds light on the evolution of ore deposits rich in platinum and palladium, two metals vital to sustainability efforts such as the manufacture of fuel cells and solar panels. They performed experiments at high pressure and temperature to simulate the evol-ution of magma chambers that are thought to evolve platinum- and palladium-rich aqueous fluids which ascend and precipitate the metals in small volumes of the magma chamber, resulting in the con-centration of both metals increasing by five orders of magnitude to economic grades. The results will improve predictive techniques for the discovery of new deposits, required for future development of sus-tainable technology.

Award recipient, Mandy Williams (center), with her faculty advisor,
Brenda Buck, and Farouk El-Baz

Mandy Williams (Ph.D. Student) has won the Farouk El-Baz GSA Student Research Award for her work on Biological Soil Crusts in the Mojave Desert. Her dissertation research will identify environmental factors controlling biological soil crusts within the Mojave Desert and attempt to model their distribution effectively. She will employ a novel, interdisciplinary approach (combining biology, ecology, soil science, hydrology, statistics, chemistry, geomorphology, GIS, and remote sensing) to investigate and model a complex, natural system. This work will examine the ecology of primitive organisms under extreme conditions and will have implications for understanding basic requirements of life.

Past Spotlight on Research

Recent Publications of the
UNLV Geoscience Department