Oliver Tschauner
Research Professor
Mineralogy, Crystallography, Dynamic compression
Office: LFG 202B
Laboratories: SEB 3118 (XRD/XRF), TEC 120 (shockwave)
Phone: (702) 895-3137
Email: oliver.tschauner@unlv.edu
Education:
B.S. and M.S. – University of Cologne, 1994
Ph.D. – University of Cologne, 1997
Research Interests:
Mineralogy of extreme conditions with emphasis on mineral chemistry of the deep Earth (transition zone and deeper) and processes during large asteroid impacts. I examine the rare, (sub-) microscopic natural occurrences of such phases and obtain in-depth information about their crystal chemistry and thermodynamics beyond what is realistically achievable in experiments. Thus, mineralogy of extreme conditions complements experimental high-pressure geo/mineral-physics.
Selected publications:
Ahrensite, gamma-Fe2SiO4, a new shock-metamorphic mineral from the Tissint meteorite: Implications for the Tissint shock event on Mars. 2016. Ma, C. ; Tschauner, O.; Beckett, J.R.; Liu, Y.; Rossman, G.R.; Sinogeikin, S.V.; Smith, J.S.; Taylor, L.A. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 184, 240-256 DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2016.04.042
Tissintite (Ca, Na, □) AlSi2O6, a Highly Defective, Shock-Induced, High-Pressure Pyroxene in the Tissint Martian Meteorite. 2015, Chi Ma, Oliver Tschauner, John Beckett, Yang Liu, George Rossman, Kirill Zuravlev, Vasili Prakapenka, Przemyslav Dera and Lawrence A. Taylor, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 422,194-205.
Discovery of Bridgmanite – the most abundant mineral in Earth, in a shocked meteorite. 2014, O. Tschauner, C. Ma, J. Beckett, C. Prescher, V. Prakapenka, G.Rossman, Science 346, 1100, DOI: 10.1126/science.1259369
Shock synthesis of Lanthanum-III-pernitride. 2013 , O. Tschauner, S.N. Luo, Y.J. Chen, A. McDowell, J. Knight, S.M. Clark, High Pressure Research 202,, DOI 10.1080/08957959.2012.761214
Anomalous bulk compression behaviour in a hyper-stoichiometric Uraniumdioxide Thoriumdioxide solid solution. 2013, Tschauner, O; Ma, C., Grubor-Urosevic, O.; Chen, Y., submitted to J. Phys. Cond. Matter 25 Issue: 16 DOI: 10.1088/0953-8984/25/16/162201
Courses taught:
GEOL 420/620 – Advanced topics: X-ray diffraction
GEOL 452X/652X Advanced Mineralogy